How many nurses work in Spain?
There are 330,000 of us, 85% of us women.
What distinguishes a good nurse?
Take a smile. Smiling and laughing heals.
Why is it a nurse?
I dreamed of being an astronaut. But I remembered how I saved my life: at the age of two I suffered from typhoid fever and was saved from death in a hospital ward.
Hence his vocation?
I also loved being taken to the pediatrician, and seeing the syringes…
He could have been a pediatrician.
No one is as close to the patient as the nurse. It’s what I wanted.
And how long has he been a nurse?
ten years I started palliative care. Tough and rewarding – I felt like I could help a lot. Especially in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
What was he doing there?
Moisturize skin, clean asses, turn on your side in bed, do analytics, put on respirators, administer medications… And you can also support family members…
Are you thinking about something?
The wife of an old man who had just died, knowing that we had to take him down to the mortuary, begged me: “Put a blanket on him, it’s very cold”.
Poor.
The nurse is an intermediary between the patient and his wife, brother, parents, children. “Take care of him!”, they implore you, obviously.
Do you remember your first patient?
I was in an ambulance in practice and they called us from a chalet: the little boy was floating in the pool… We couldn’t revive him.
how old were you
I was 19 years old and I will never erase the helplessness I felt. Although I made up for it the other day in Barcelona…
What happened?
On Sant Jordi’s day, I happily signed copies of my book in a booth on L’Illa Diagonal. I heard a commotion in the back… I asked my editor…
And what was it?
“A boy”, he told me, “something happened to him”. I jumped up. A desperate father and a child upset over a piece of candy… The child was suffocating. Standing behind the boy, I practiced the Heimlich maneuver on him.
He pressed his sternum, didn’t he?
And he expelled the candy. I saved the boy.
Did you continue to sign after that?
Yes, and parents and child came, grateful.
Nurse to the rescue!
We are in the delicate moments of people’s lives, when they are born and when they die: it is up to us to clothe them with dignity. I think it’s nice to see someone die well.
What does it mean to die well?
Ready to go in peace, with yourself and the world. I have also seen people die badly, that is, suffering.
How would this profession improve?
With specialties: emergency, mental health, work, family, paediatrics, geriatrics… And it would reduce precariousness: 42% of nursing jobs are temporary.
Another idea.
There are 7,200 Spanish nurses abroad because they earn three times more money there than here: let’s improve salaries here and they will come back. We need them!
He doesn’t seem happy with his job.
I love nursing as much as I deplore its precarious conditions.
What is the worst?
The workload per nurse and the low social recognition (which is measured in euros). And being able to take days off for your own issues without depending on a colleague to cover for you.
We create new places, therefore!
In Spain there are 5.9 nurses per thousand inhabitants. In Germany there are 14 nurses per thousand inhabitants!
How many more nurses do we need?
The General Nursing Council estimates that one hundred thousand new nurses would revitalize this profession.
Let the future government read it.
It will do good: we Spanish nurses are so competent that we sustain a healthcare system that does not deserve us.
I have no doubt about it.
Healthcare professionals in Europe say it: the training of our nurses is the best. It’s clear: Spanish nurses are the best in Europe.
And they are witnesses to thousands of anecdotes, like the ones he collects in his books…
And comics, mostly. For example: a patient once brought me his stool sample in a cap from home…
He must have half-understood something.
The good man handed me the cork with a discreet and heartfelt request: “Give it back to me, please”.
