It has been a problem for quite a while, but it is clear that the situation has become worse in the past few years.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said last week that the shortage of nurses is creating serious problems to the provision of services in our hospitals.

Nurses are overworked, tired and cannot cope with a system that puts them in charge of too many patients at a given time. Only last May, the MUMN said that Malta is missing 600 nurses while many are abandoning the profession and seeking an alternative career, also because of what the union says are “poor working conditions”.

The issue of a nursing shortage came up again in the past days when a patient went missing from the St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly.

This incident confirms what the union has been saying all along, the MUMN said in a statement – that the shortage of nurses is jeopardising the safety of patients.

The ward in question, with 35 patients, should have been manned by two nurses, but there was only one at the time, the union said. Added to this, the nurse in question did not habitually work in the ward but came from the reliever pool.

The MUMN has been calling for remedial action for a long time, but it is not an easy problem to solve. (Resorting to industrial action, however, is not the right way to spur the government into taking the matter more seriously; it will only serve to make things worse.)

The Health Minister, Chris Fearne, has been reported saying that this is a worldwide issue and studies are taking place to see why this is happening.

In the meantime, there is a risk that more nurses leave their job, creating an even bigger vacuum.

Working as a nurse requires a vocation, an innate feeling of wanting to be of services to others in need. Being surrounded with suffering on a regular basis, with people who are hurt, in pain and sometimes dying, requires an inner strength and ability to deal with people in need, under pressure too.

A nurse is not only someone who gives medication. He or she must be someone who is able to calm down patients, be kind, and generate a sense of serenity even when the situation is dramatic. They must be people who exude trust, radiate reliability and emanate comfort. Patients depend on nurses for their wellbeing, both physical and mental. A kind word and a smile go a long way to make a patient feel better.

But, in a world where everything is becoming disposable and youngsters seek instant gratification through highly-paid, less onerous jobs, the profession of a nurse is no longer attractive.

The shortage of nurses is yet another symptom of a world which has become less friendly and more selfish.

It is not something that can be solved overnight.