Long hours, poor pay mean life of hardship for hospital orderly

Wang Xiaoqin , from Anhui province , works around-the-clock shifts as an orderly in an intensive-care unit ward at a Shanghai hospital. The hours are long and the work is dirty but she has few other options for making a living.

What do you do every day?

I take care of everything for the patients on this ward, who have just undergone big operations. I clean them and help them drink and eat. Sometimes I also help the medical staff by doing things such as checking the patients' urine. In my job I deal mostly with patients' urine, faeces and blood, and it is so stinking and dirty. That's because the patients are in a serious condition. They're linked up by so many tubes to monitoring machines, they cannot move at all. I have to look after them 24 hours a day and can take only a few naps. I cannot sleep in the evening because the patients may need my help, such as helping them have some water or clean them up.

Do you like this job?

To be honest, no, I don't like it. The job is so dirty and laborious. I look exhausted, due to lack of sleep, and lost about 4kg in the first week. Sometimes patients hit me if they fret and have not recovered completely from the anaesthetic. Or there are some patients' relatives who like to find fault and criticise me. My work pals and I comfort each other, saying that what we do is for the patients but also for the money. I earn 30 yuan a day taking care of each patient, but have to hand in a portion of my income to the hospital. Sometimes I complain to myself and sigh that I am not educated and have no professional skills. There are not many jobs for me to choose from. My two other family members have been doing this job in Shanghai for over 10 years.

How was the job at the start?

I had seven days of training before working with patients. I was told about how to clean patients' bodies, handling their excreta, cleaning their teeth and using certain medical equipment. Patients in the ICU have a respirator, but many of them are not comfortable with the tube inserted in their throat. So we must tie patients' hands to the bed, otherwise they will remove the tube and run the risk of dying. We also have some male orderlies. I think they have the advantage, because they have more strength and can easily turn over the patient to clean them. At first, I was really scared to see blood or a dead patient. Now I am accustomed to it and don't feel nervous.