Editor,
Nursing staff are the backbone of patient care, yet many nurses working in private hospitals in Arunachal Pradesh are reportedly paid as little as Rs. 9,000 per month. At the same time, doctors in some private hospitals may receive salaries of around Rs.1.5 lakh or more. This enormous disparity raises an important question: Are we valuing the contribution of our nursing workforce adequately?
Doctors and nurses have different professional responsibilities, qualifications, and scopes of practice, and their salaries need not be identical. However, nursing is far from a secondary role in healthcare. Nurses are often the healthcare professionals who remain continuously beside patients-monitoring vital signs, administering medicines, assisting doctors, maintaining records, responding to emergencies, providing basic care, and offering emotional support to patients and their families.
In many hospitals, nurses work long and demanding shifts, including nights, weekends, and holidays. They deal directly with critically ill patients and are frequently the first to notice a change in a patient's condition. Their work requires professional training, responsibility, patience, and considerable physical and emotional endurance.
The situation becomes even more concerning when the cost of living is taken into consideration.
Itanagar has witnessed a substantial rise in rent and everyday expenses. For a nursing professional earning Rs.9,000 a month, a significant portion of that income can disappear simply in paying for rent, food, transportation, and other basic necessities.
A trained healthcare professional should not be forced into financial insecurity merely for choosing a profession dedicated to caring for others.
The issue, therefore, is not about demanding that nurses receive the same salary as doctors. It is about establishing a reasonable, dignified, and sustainable salary structure for nursing professionals.
Nursing is not merely a job
A nurse's responsibility does not end when the shift becomes difficult. Whether it is a patient experiencing complications in the middle of the night, an emergency admission, postoperative care, or the routine monitoring of a critically ill patient, nurses are expected to remain vigilant.
They work under pressure while carrying enormous responsibility. A small mistake in medication, dosage, monitoring, or documentation can have serious consequences.
Yet when such responsibility is compensated with extremely low wages, it can lead to frustration, financial hardship, staff turnover, and difficulty attracting and retaining qualified professionals.
Private hospitals must recognise their workforce
Private healthcare institutions are businesses, but healthcare is also a sector built fundamentally around human lives.
Hospitals depend not only on doctors but also on nurses, technicians, pharmacists, attendants, cleaners, administrative staff, and many other workers. A hospital cannot function effectively when any essential component of this system is undervalued.
Private hospitals in Arunachal Pradesh should, therefore, consider establishing transparent salary structures based on qualification, experience, workload, shift duties, and professional responsibility.
Additional compensation should also be considered for night shifts, overtime, emergency duties, and specialised nursing responsibilities.
A matter of dignity, not charity
Nurses should not have to depend on sympathy or charity to receive fair wages.
They are trained professionals contributing directly to the healthcare system. Their compensation should reflect their qualifications, responsibilities, working hours, and the prevailing cost of living.
If a trained nurse is earning only Rs. 9,000 a month while struggling to meet basic expenses in Itanagar, it is legitimate to question whether such remuneration is adequate.
Fair wages are not a favour to nurses. They are recognition of the value of their work.
A call for action
The concerned authorities, such as CBOS, student unions such as AAPSU and ANSU, private hospitals, hospital associations, and nursing organisations should initiate a meaningful discussion on the minimum remuneration of nursing professionals in Arunachal Pradesh.
A reasonable salary floor, periodic revision according to inflation and the cost of living, overtime compensation, paid leave, social security benefits, and proper employment contracts could significantly improve the situation.
The government can also consider developing appropriate guidelines or minimum standards for remuneration and working conditions in private healthcare institutions, while taking into account the financial realities of smaller hospitals.
A healthcare system cannot truly be strong if the people providing round-the-clock patient care are themselves struggling to survive.
Arunachal Pradesh needs quality healthcare, and quality healthcare requires a respected, adequately compensated, and financially secure nursing workforce.
It is time to have an honest conversation about the wages of nurses in the private healthcare sector because those who spend their nights caring for our patients deserve a livelihood that allows them to live with dignity.
Victim Staff Nurse