NIGERIAN nurses are diligent, hardworking and committed to work, but challenges in the hospital environment and at the home front are factors that contribute to the generally unbecoming and unfriendly attitude of some nurses in the country.
It is no secret that nurses in Nigeria are overworked, underpaid and not apppreciated for the value of work and services they put in. Even though they are always at the beck and call of the patient, the voice of nurses are hardly heard even when administrative decisions are being taken.
Today in the country, an average nurse cares for over 30, patients far exceeding WHO recomended ratio.
Drawing attention to this development, Chairman, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Lagos State Council, Mrs. Olatunde Olushola, said it is not in the nature of any nurse to be hostile but circumstances often force them to do so.
Olushola said there is always a plausible explanation behind the attitude of every Nigerian nurse.
She spoke during the 2nd edition of the Nurses’ Week and Scientific Conference organised by the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM,
Working tools: Her words: “In some institutions, the working tools of every nurse is incomplete without a cellphone that has a built-in torch because that is the level to which some hospitals have pushed their logistics and infrastructure.
“Now tell me, if I want to take delivery of a baby and there is no light and I now have to hang my handset as a torch on my head to attend to the woman that is in distress, won’t I be tense and stressed up?”
She recalled an instance in which just tissue paper was made available to nurses to clean up the body of a new born baby. As for the home front, she remarked: “You have to remember that the nurse is human. If that nurse is female, she is wife to someone, mother of children and might have early been subjected to some kind of maltreatment before she left home.
Olushola, however, said such unfriendly attitude was tarnishing the nursing profession,and should be mitigated.
Professional nurse
“But when you are a professional nurse, what is expected of you is that once you get to the hospital gate, you bury all those issues even if your husband has slapped you before you left home that morning, you have to forget about it b ecause the people you are going to nurse have no other means of relief and their belief is that they will be well once they get to the hospital,” she added.
As professionals, the expectation is that a nurse should carry out her duties against all odds, even in the face of inhibitions that include acute staff shortage, non-conducive environment, poor facilities and lack of adequate welfare among others.
In the past, when a level 14 nurse retired, two or three nurses are employed to replace her and the retired nurse’s salary is divided among them.
Today, however, we are having a situation whereby 75 nurses retire and the management is planning to employ 23 as their replacement.
Greener pasture: She said nurses go abroad in search of greener pastures, not neccessarily because of the money, but because the environment is conducive and the right policies are in place. “But in a situation whereby you want the best but you are not providing the enabling environment, it is very difficult to get the best, but I believe things will be better one day.
In his contribution, the Chief Executive Officer, Radio Continental, Mr. Richie Johnson, described the nursing profession as special.
“It is not a profession you should venture into to make money, rather, it is one that demands compassion. I could imagine how much you can achieve when you don’t bother about who get the credit. It is important to know that where ever you are the real you is who you are when you think nobody is watching,”
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