Understanding the crisis in the nursing work environment

Dr Nuhad Dumit, Associate Professor at the Hariri School of Nursing and coordinator of the Nursing Administration and Management Track Masters degree, explains how she and her colleagues have spent years understanding the many factors that prompt Lebanese nurses to emigrate abroad – or from rural areas to Beirut – which has resulted in a serious shortage of nurses across the country. Salaries and the work environment play big roles in this, and she is now also exploring whether sexual harassment at work is also a factor. New models of nursing care have maintained health care standards to date, but danger lurks if the nursing sector continues along its current trajectory.