Young mothers usually care for their own babies the best way they can but when something goes wrong and the child gets neglected or abused, should they face a drastic punitive sentence or be handled kindly and carefully to find out the underlying true cause of their 'behaviour' and be 'rehabilitated' fully?
If this scenario were evident in other areas , where the care-giver was not doing her/his job properly resulting in some form of neglect, what should be the correct line of approach? Should they be sent to prison or sacked or suspended or be taken to one side to establish what exactly had happened and why things had gone wrong. Caring is a noble activity , whether for the young or for the old and it is not always easy. Pressure of work , lack of staff , lack of support and assistance, poor environment , the type of individuals being cared etc are all extremely relevant. More research is needed and in depth training is essential.
Sadly these 'requirements' are often ignored. Some profit - making businesses get into it often without any altruistic motive and only to make money for their share-holders. Despite very strict requirements for 'standards' , the actual 'activities' on the coal face are not monitored all the time and 'bad' practices prevail. If one is doing wrong things and is getting away with it, why not the other one will also follow suit ! The supervision is not always there and the ''bosses'' are usually busy checking their balance sheets and 'reports'. I have witnessed such callous behaviour by a 'trained' nurse in a major hospital, when a very sick patient was admitted at one o'clock in the morning to face a uniformed person with a form on a pinboard in her hand enquiring when that 74 old patient patient had her menarche !!!!! This is an extreme example but did happen. Why? Because , the regulations are given more importance than the 'caring',
Despite all such shortcomings , I feel the correct approach to such problem must be more training and choice of right kind of people to do the job. Yes , dismissal , disciplinary sanctions may be necessary in extreme cases , but such approach won't 'improve' anything - the staff will live in fear , won't report any genuine mistakes , will begin to conceal substandard work by others. Officially 'training' IS provided - the staff are sent to meetings and seminars elsewhere but no one checks what they have learnt and how the actual practice will change for the better . Often by the time they finish their return train journey , they might have forgotten what they heard during the day !!! To me , training means ,'' hands on'' training , the way a surgeon is trained at the operating table by his teacher. The 'senior' nursing staff these days are mostly ''managers'' attending meetings ( mostly useless and non productive) rather than passing on their 'skill' to their juniors.
I feel time now has come to give some credance to 'practical hands-on training' of all grades of care-staff in our institutions whether privately run or state-run
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