"It is very hard work — medicine. Everything is important here: not just salary, but also conditions, what the hospitals are like, what the relationships are like, how the work is organized," emphasized Professor, Infectologist Uga Dumpis in an interview with Latvijas Radio 1 program "Krustpunktā," reports nra.lv.
"We lack doctors and nurses not because few graduate from universities. There is competition in our universities, and they train a lot of doctors and nurses, more than in other European countries. There are completely different reasons why we lack doctors and nurses. Many have left, and many do not work in their specialty," said Dumpis.
In his opinion, this is not just a matter of salary. "It is very hard work — medicine," believes Dumpis, adding that everything is important — what the conditions are like, what the hospitals are like, what the relationships are like, and how the work is organized.
Moreover, Dumpis noted that today’s youth are much more demanding — they want order, predictability, and guarantees. Not just money, but also domestic stability and psycho-emotional balance, and this needs to be considered. It’s not that no one wants to study to become nurses and doctors. In Latvia, many more people study and graduate from universities than in Sweden, noted the infectologist.
But where do they go? Why do we train so many? Why don’t they come into medicine? According to Dumpis, these are questions that need to be thought about. And why do we not have teachers — this is a similar question, and it is not only about salary, believes Dumpis.
"We simply missed something. We have 'forgotten' these professions or somehow 'forgotten' to support them," said the infectologist.
Dumpis also suggested that people do not fully understand the importance of these professions, but it is not about the number of university graduates. It is more a question of what place we allocate to such professions in society.
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