Commentator of China Industrial Network   Li Jing

Recently, the Workers' Daily reported the troubles of several patients' families and nursing workers in Chongqing: the patients were hospitalized and the nursing workers were changed several times, but the service quality was not satisfactory; The nurse complains that she often lacks rest, is highly stressed, and sometimes is challenged by the employer... Both sides seem to be distressed.

In fact, this situation is not just in Chongqing. Affected by the aging population and fewer children, people's demand for patient care services is growing. Especially in big cities, many patients and their families are troubled by the large gap of nursing workers and uneven service quality. The care workers are also full of "bitter water". It is difficult to guarantee the salary and welfare. When their rights and interests are violated, they do not know who to look for and how to protect their rights, etc. To solve these "pain points", we must accelerate the standardization and professionalization of nursing workers.

First, the problem of "name rectification". At present, there are a variety of names for "nurse" in the market, including "nurse", "medical nurse", "assistant nurse" and "family caregiver". Which title is more accurate?

The People's Republic of China Occupational Classification Canon (2015 Edition) has a classification of "medical nurses", which makes it clear that they are one of the auxiliary medical service personnel, mainly engaged in auxiliary nursing and other work. The National Occupational Standards for Medical Nurses (2024), formulated by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Health Commission, emphasizes that "part of the auxiliary work should be carried out under the guidance of medical personnel" when defining the occupation of "medical nurses". It can be seen that the actual work of medical nurses and nursing workers is close. In recent years, the voice of "canceling nursing workers and speeding up the exploration of establishing a medical nursing home system" has always existed, and industry insiders also tend to regard "medical nurses" as a new profession formed by the standardization of nursing workers. Whether and how the nurse workers will "turn" to this career direction in the future still needs the research and guidance of relevant departments.

Secondly, it is the problem of working with certificates. Nursing of patients requires certain professional knowledge and practical skills. In 2019, the National Health Commission and other five departments jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Training and Standardized Management of Medical Nurses (Guo Wei Yi Fa [2019] No. 49), which put forward requirements for relevant work in various regions. If we can further unify the training content of medical nurses at the national level on this basis, prepare standardized training materials for relevant institutions to use, and uniformly authenticate qualified personnel to form an access mechanism, it should be more conducive to ensuring the quality of nursing services from the source.

Third, how to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of nursing workers. There is no doubt that the work of the nurse is hard, and it often happens that the customer makes trouble for no reason. When their legitimate rights and interests are violated, it is often difficult to safeguard their rights. The high intensity of work, unstable income and uncertain career prospects all lead to a small number of people willing to do this job to varying degrees. On the one hand, there should be more explicit provisions on the working hours, working standards, and treatment of nursing workers; On the other hand, it can build a learning and professional promotion platform for them, help them improve their skills and abilities, improve their professional identity, and inject confidence into more people, especially young people, to engage in this job.

In recent years, many places are also accelerating the standardization and professionalization of nursing workers. For example, not long ago, there were medical nurses in the People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region who obtained the special professional competence certificate for patient care, becoming the first batch of people in the hospital to obtain the special professional competence certificate. The relevant person in charge of Chongqing Municipal Health Commission said that the medical nurses of the five local pilot units (hospitals) would be star rated. It is expected that the accumulation of these experiences and the exploration of good practices can effectively promote the healthy and standardized development of the health care industry, and continuously improve the public's experience of medical treatment and hospitalization.