The lack of nursing staff at public hospitals in Greece: The effects of economic crisis

4^th International Conference on Nursing & Healthcare

October 05-07, 2015 San Francisco, USA

Zogopoulos Panagiotis, Ioanna Galatianou, Panagiotis Kokkalis, Ioannis Ydraios, Georgios Tsanis and Aggelos Leventis

General Hospital of Nikaia-Piraeus â�?�?Agios Panteleimonâ�?, Greece

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

According to current legislation in Greece the nursing staff in hospitals works in 3 consecutive 8-hour shifts. In previous years, morning shifts at public hospitals were staffed by 4-6 nurses while the afternoon shift by 3-4 and the night shift by 2-3 nurses according to the nature and severity of cases at the various departments. Over the last years, due to the economic crisis that has occurred in Greece, there have been major budget cuts regarding employment of new nursing staff. This has led to a dramatic decrease on the number of nurses working at each shift thus making the performance of their duties extremely difficult. In particular, the morning shift nowadays is comprised of 2-4 nurses while the afternoon and night shifts by only one nurse. This leads not only to the exhaustion of the already understaffed nursing personnel but also to higher risks regarding patients��? hospitalization. It is therefore imperative that, despite the serious economic problems of the country, the budget of public hospitals is increased in order to cover the needs of nursing staff employment.

Biography :

Zogopoulos Panagiotis is a Resident of Neurosurgery at the General Hospital of Nikaia-Piraeus “Agios Panteleimon”, Greece. He has received a 6-month advanced Clinical Training (Clinical Fellow) at the Neurosurgery Department of Osaka University Hospital in Japan. Several of his papers have been published in reputed peerreviewed journals and he has presented various researches in international conferences.

Email: p.zogopoulos@yahoo.com