‘It’s time to recognise the value of nurses’: What got Maria Thattil through a recent hospital stay

After a health scare left her in hospital for five days, Maria Thattil has vowed to raise awareness for ‘underpaid and undervalued’ nurses.

Maria Thattil has paid tribute to ‘systematically underpaid’ healthcare workers after a recent stay in hospital. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

She came in like sunshine. I could tell she was smiling under her mask because her eyes crinkled up as she greeted us.

We’ll call her Anna – a nurse during my week-long hospital stint for severe gastroenteritis.

Mum sat nearby as Anna unhooked me from my IV drip before a shower and began to refresh my sheets. “How long have you been a nurse?” Mum asked. “Four years,” she replied. “I used to be in finance.” I peeked my head out from behind the bathroom door as she went on, “You have to love this to do it – and I truly do.”

In my five days in hospital, I had three 10-minute visits from my doctor, yet 24-hour care from my nurses. The awareness that health workers are underpaid and undervalued is heightened when you’re humbled by sickness.

After I posted my thoughts of gratitude on Instagram, nurses flocked to share their stories.

Listen to the latest episode of Stellar’s podcast Something To Talk About below:

Highlighting that the challenges begin during training, one student nurse shared that they had “completed over 800 hours of unpaid clinical placement”. In this economy?

Out of the money they do make – despite having been systematically underpaid for years – one nurse reminded me they’re “expected

to pay for our own parking”. Another nurse elaborated that they “work in a public hospital, and to park it costs $25 per shift. Most park a kilometre away from the hospital just to pay $14. There have been multiple femicides in the areas we park and we haveto walk by ourselves after a night shift.”

The risks aren’t just external. Many nurses wrote about “countless assaults”, one sharing that such an assault “left me with PTSD”. And assaults aside, “we are exposed to biohazards and infection risk every day, with the risk pay in male-dominated industries much higher.”

Another haematology nurse summed up what seems to be a shared experience.

Maria Thattil’s column appeared in the August 11 issue of Stellar. Picture: Stellar

“My patients stay with us for a long time, we work around the clock, shift work. Minimal breaks in between change of shifts. We are bedside 24/7, we see patients go downhill before anyone else, we inform doctors when we think something is wrong, we handle and administer cytotoxic medications that can affect our own reproductive systems if not handled correctly, and we work overtime without pay. We go our whole shift without food and sometimes toilet breaks because our patients need us.”

Yet, as hard as it is, they “stick around because we love helping people”.

Female-dominated industries such as nursing have historically been undervalued and underpaid, and the staff are often overworked. After protests and negotiations, in Victoria, nurses and midwives have now been granted a once-in-a-generation pay rise that will see them receive a 28.4 per cent increase over four years.

However, when workers in this profession are already starting on the back foot, and we acknowledge they have been underpaid, is an incremental annual increase of 7 per cent in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis really sufficient?

It’s time to stop looking at nursing as a cost to the healthcare system, and instead recognise nurses’ value – as they’re a workforce we must invest in.

The nursing profession needs to grow in industrial and professional power, power that should be wielded to push for a cultural change in how we treat workers in female-dominated, essential, caring industries.

Among the hundreds of people posting, one nurse messaged me saying it’s her “privilege

to care for patients” – but the truth is that it’s a privilege for us to be cared for. It’s time nurses were valued that way.

Maria Thattil was Miss Universe Australia 2020 and is a TV presenter and writer. For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as ‘It’s time to recognise the value of nurses’: What got Maria Thattil through a recent hospital stay