PESHAWAR, Aug 31: Corporal punishment has been the main source of keeping the aspiring candidates away from joining the nursing profession, many staff and student nurses at the city hospitals told Dawn on Friday.

“Most of the teachers give physical punishment to the students even on petty matters. The teachers normally use wooden sticks and hands to punish the students,” said a second year student of Nursing College, Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Most of the desiring students opt out of the nursing profession when they come to know about the corporal punishment being awarded to the students, she said.

Another student at the same college said that not only in college but they also get severe punishments at their hostels by their teachers. She said many students leave the nursing profession because of the unbecoming attitude of the teachers.

The government discourages physical punishment even in boys’ primary schools and there is no concept of the corporal punishment for the girl students at the school level.

The situation in Lady Reading Hospital is no different from the KTH where the teaching staff take pride in punishing their students. The teachers, according to the students punished the students on one pretext or the other.

The students also complain that their courses which were being taught to them by the doctors, was now being taught by the senior nurses who did not know the anatomy and physiology. They have been giving notes to the students. The nurses join the profession after passing their matriculation examination because owing to the poverty of their parents, they could not afford to take admission in college because they have to spend more money on studying in colleges while in nursing schools, they get Rs1,275 as a stipend per month.