Shanghai health authority paid tribute to over 100,000 nurses from Shanghai and more than 16,000 from other provinces who came to the aid in the combat against the Omicron outbreak, which demonstrate their lofty professional spirits of great love, respect for life, willingness to help the wounded and rescue the dying.

Zhao Dandan, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, addressed the 111th International Nurses Day, which falls on Thursday, expressing his appreciation for the contribution made by nurses fighting on the frontline of the battle against COVID-19 in the past two months.

The theme of this year’s International Nurses Day is “Care for nurses and protect people's health.”

According to Zhao, the nurse team in Shanghai has continued to scale up with its personnel quality and its service capacity being improved, and its service range being expanded.

The total number of nurses in Shanghai has reached 108,700 at present, increased by 24,700 from the number in 2017. Nurses aged 30 and below account for 39.17 percent of the total number of nurses. Male nurses account for 2.79 percent of the total number.

Zhao pointed out that the 100,000 nurses from Shanghai and more than 16,000 from other provinces came to the aid have played a vital role in the combat against COVID-19.

Despite of being wives, daughters, fathers, husbands and sons, all of them sacrificed their own small families and devote for the big family.

Regardless of the risks, they rushed to the frontline of administering nucleic acid tests, management of communities, treatment of patients and regular medical treatment, demonstrating the lofty professional spirits of great love, respect for life, willingness of dedication and rescuing and saving the wounded and the dying people.

With their professional nursing skills, the nurses participate in difficult and risky medical treatment and offer patients warm clinical cares, vividly interpreting and promoting the great anti-epidemic spirit of putting life first, making the whole country work together, sacrificing their own lives, respecting science and sharing a common destiny, Zhao addressed, expressing sincere appreciation to the nurses’ dedication.

Statistics from China’s National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China show the total number of nurses has reached 5.01 million in China as of the end of 2021, an increase of 2.52 million from the number in 2012, up 101 percent.

The number of registered nurses also increased from 1.85 among 1,000 people in 2012 to 3.56 in 2021.

The ratio between doctors and nurses has risen to 1 to 1.17 in 2021 from 1 to 0.95 in 2012. It is expected that the ratio between doctors and nurses can further rise to 1 to 1.2 by 2025.

Global Times