Demanding patients: – “I have an e-card, I am entitled to it”

Caring for people so that they get better is still a dream job for many nurses. But in addition to staff shortages, Salzburg hospitals are also plagued by increasingly demanding patients.

“But now I’m at the counter.”
Sabine Gabath, central works councilor at the state clinics in Salzburg, gives an example: a man who received a light blow to the head in the morning wants to have it looked at hours later in the emergency room of the state hospital. The nurse at the counter stops a patient with a bleeding wound and is told: “But now I’m at the counter.”

Some patients, Gabath says, become aggressive. Many people demand priority and say: ‘I have an e-card, I am entitled to it.’ What makes matters worse is that more work comes as seniors who have no one at home stay in the hospital. The good news is that new youth are motivated to enter the nursing profession. “After many years of minimizing nurse training, the past three years have thankfully been different. “In addition, the training places are now better paid,” explains Sabine Gabath.

But the wave of retirements is shrinking the workforce. In addition, many people cannot or do not want to work until they are 65. “Most nurses start at the age of 17 and at some point they just have physical damage. That is why so many people want to retire part-time.”

Nursing education is critically examined in the clinics, because 15-year-olds are not allowed to work on patients. Many would therefore leave the profession after completing their internship.