MINA, 19 December 2007 — Munseya Al-Juaid, 36, is a Saudi mother of two and a nurse working the Haj shift at Mina Al-Jesser Hospital. She has been a nurse for the past 16 years and entered the profession at a time when it was better to be jobless than to be a nurse.
“People have usually looked down on women nurses,” she said. “It was very hard at the beginning. We’ve came a long way and made it easier for others.”
Arab News met Al-Juaid as she was treating a diabetic patient. When asked about having worked for four years during Haj, she said that she loved the humanitarian aspects of nursing with which she wins the prayers of the pilgrims. “This is our country and the pilgrims are people who have come to us. By serving them we’re presenting ourselves in the best light.”
In her case, personal circumstances paved her way into nursing. Today, 80 percent of the women nurses working during Haj at Mina Al-Jesser Hospital are Saudi. “Eighty percent of nurses at the hospital are women and 20 percent are men,” said the deputy director of the Mina Al-Jesser Hospital, Dr. Mohammad Baksh, who is also the head of ER at the King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah. “On the other hand, 10 percent of the doctors are women whereas 90 percent are men.”
He attributed the difference between men and women nurses to the fact that the majority of nurses in the Kingdom are women. However, there is full facilitation for women medical staff to participate during the Haj season, especially since there is a specific need for them.
“There’s a desire for women to want their own sex to attend to them medically,” said the director of Mina Al-Jesser Hospital, Dr. Walid Hammad, who is an osteopath at Jeddah’s King Fahd Hospital. Dr. Hammad has been working during Haj for the past 16 years and Dr. Baksh for the past 13. Both were present at the time of a major fire that broke out in a residential building some years ago and in an hour and a half, the emergency room received 136 cases.
Emergency rooms during Haj call for constant alertness, quick decision-making and a great deal of teamwork. Hospital pamphlets and booklets, as well as office facilities, are fruits of the joint efforts and initiatives of the medical staff. Also, Mina Al-Jesser is the only hospital to implement a Canadian ED Triage and Acuity Scale that has been customized for Haj. The system has been instituted by Dr. Baksh at King Fahd Hospital. “The system is all about time and case categorization to ensure that critical cases are picked up when they arrive,” said Dr. Baksh. “The system depends on teamwork and eliminates overcrowding of patients.”
Dr. Hammad said that on the seventh day of Dhul Al-Hijjah, the emergency room at the hospital had received from 30 to 60 percent of cases; on the ninth day it decreases to 20 percent and on the 11th and 12th days, it could reach up to 120 percent. Yesterday, the pace in the ER room was slow. Most of the cases were due to chronic illnesses with most patients being elderly. “Excited pilgrims with chronic diseases sometimes push themselves beyond their capacity or forget to take their medication or are even unaware of the medication they are taking,” said Dr. Hammad.
Men and women, including volunteers, interested in working during Haj as part of the medical team must apply to the Ministry of Health. Dr. Baksh and Dr. Hammad agreed that there are those who come to contribute with their acquired experience and those who come to acquire experience. “Medical care during Haj is a subject unto itself,” said Dr. Baksh. “There should be a scientific program that is taught before Haj during the year to all candidates.”
