Ana Rosario Contreras, president of the Caracas College of Professional Nurses, denounced that “the state does not protect us from COVID-19. If we have symptoms, they send us home for 7 days without the possibility of having access to treatment because health centers do not have medications and we cannot afford them with our salaries”

During a webinar organized by Amnesty International Venezuela under the name “Nurses: between institutional violence and the pandemic”, the president of the Caracas College of Professional Nurses, Ana Rosario Contreras, state that “before the pandemic, the nursing personnel was already working in catastrophic conditions in poorly equipped Venezuelan hospitals, with salaries that condemn them to extreme poverty. We are also persecuted and threatened by our employers if we demand our rights.”

Health personnel works blindfolded before a State that does not provide hospitals with equipment and supplies and fails to take care of the infrastructure. Contreras stressed that her coworkers are afraid of infecting their relatives and neighbors when they return home because hospitals lack water to take a shower after their guards. “They don’t give us antibacterial gel, hats, or gloves; They only give us a mask that we must wear for 15 days in a row ”.

She denounced the lack of biosafety protocols to protect the lives of the nurses who work day after day in these health centers. “The state does not protect us from COVID-19. If we show symptoms, they send us home for 7 days without the possibility of having access to treatment because health centers do not have medications and we cannot afford them with our salaries.”

Only 40 thousand of the 120 thousand professional nurses that existed in the country remain on duty, as a result of the migration of many of them due to deplorable working conditions. Contreras claimed that “COVID-19 made visible the vulnerability that exists throughout the health system in Venezuela, but it also exacerbated the deficit of nurses in hospitals.”

The president of the Caracas College of Professional Nurses highlighted the importance of the alliance with international bodies so that the humiliations to which they are exposed are visible and help them to achieve the decent working conditions that they have been demanding from the authorities for many years.

IACHR monitoring 

Soledad García Muñoz, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, commented that the international organization carries out daily monitoring of the situation of nurses and all health personnel in Venezuela. She stressed that the health system is in critical shape. The precarious conditions in which health workers carry out their activities are alarming.

She also said that violence against nurses and other health personnel further exacerbates the Complex Humanitarian Emergency that Venezuela is going through. “We are keeping a record of the violations suffered by this group of workers, such as the precarious conditions in which they must survive and the harassment they suffer in their workplaces for making complaints.”

She indicated that the lack of accountability on the part of the Venezuelan state is serious and prevents having information on the investment in supplies, equipment, and health infrastructure. The organization is also concerned about the lack of epidemiological bulletins that provide an overview of existing diseases in the country for further attention.

She denounced that entrenched corruption in public bodies often means that materials and supplies do not reach hospitals.

The essential role of nurses

During the event, Leticia Bernués, representative of Nursing Now Madrid, took the floor to explain that the working conditions of nurses in Europe are not ideal due to the scarce provisions that the authorities made in the face of the pandemic. “Nurses are under pressure due to lack of personnel or resources, invisibility, and underestimation of their contribution, work overload, lack of participation in policy development and planning.”

“In a study conducted by the organization under the title “The future of nurses in Spain”, 94% of the consulted nurses claimed to be concerned about their well-being in the context of the pandemic. 75% are concerned about their psychological health, 64% about their physical health, and 51% about their economic situation, ” Bernués said.

She explained that Nursing Now is promoting 5 objectives to improve the work quality of nurses: greater leadership, investment in improving working conditions and training, mutual learning practices, increasing scientific evidence, and greater influence on policymaking.

She stressed that empowering nurses could produce a triple positive impact in the countries, such as enhancing the health of the population, sustaining the economy, and improving gender equality. “With the work of the nurses in optimal conditions, the states could save a lot in health costs, and many lives could be saved.”

She concluded that international support is vital to solving the challenges that nurses currently face because many of their problems are similar in different countries. “Fighting for the working conditions of nurses is also fighting for the health of the populations they serve.”

At a disadvantage in the face of COVID-19

For his part, Jaime Lorenzo, president of the Non-Governmental Organization Médicos Unidos de Venezuela, indicated that Venezuela is at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the world regarding COVID-19 because it is not prepared with the minimum necessary equipment to attend a pandemic of this magnitude. He insisted that even the number of tests for COVID-19 has been scarce: “The dispatching of samples for COVID-19 testing has decreased by 70%.”

Venezuela is going through a Complex Humanitarian Emergency since 2018; now with the pandemic, the picture is much more critical for health personnel and people with chronic or terminal illnesses.

Médicos Unidos de Venezuela has reported that 267 health professionals have died from COVID-19. In the same way, Mr. Lorenzo highlighted that the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among doctors and nurses in Venezuela exceeds international standards.

He denounced the persecution of the authorities against health personnel who take to the streets to protest for better wages and working conditions. He rejected the cases of workers that have been arrested for this reason.

Through various strategies of visibility and campaigning, Amnesty International aims to mobilize the solidarity of national and international civil society to achieve changes in the protection of the lives of health professionals and overcoming the terrible conditions in which nurses in the country are obliged to work.

Translated by José Rafael Medina