nationalglint
On several occasions, I’ve learned that, almost every time when people are being asked about their experience with nurses or midwives, their answer seems the same, in a ballistic sound; they are rude, tough and irresponsible, which is totally a thought without base, all fingers can not be equal and in every good team, there may be a pathetic & atrocious being but the matter of fact is that majority of nurses and midwives are nothing littlest to barbarism, rudeness or wickedness, people are being judgmental because of certain people who might have been triggered harshly and so much that they cannot cover up their rudeness.
Nurses and midwives are human being just like you, nature usually act upon them, the stress, the work overload and other psychological influences all can aggravate their indifferent attitude, despite the fact that they double their patience, calmness, and level of maturity when dealing with large number of people in the hospital because of what they learned in school, of caring for ill and his relations, the dead and his relatives. Sounding rude is not a word for a nurse or a midwife, but our society has already lamented and take aim to disrupt the long reputation of our cosmopolitan profession.
The same happened with the banks, people grump about their pompous attitudes toward costumers, but not highly exaggerated as that of nurse’s behavior, WHY? or it’s that people may have forgotten the angelic work of nurses and midwives which started since when a woman is pregnant until after the death of the grown up child, we care for the patient at home or in the hospital.
General Outpatient Department, the first part of the hospital a patient visit before being admitted, that’s probably where the problem begin, because our OPDs especially in Nigeria and in public hospitals are mostly rowdy, full of patients and congested, with limited or low number of nurses attending to the patients, I once visited GOPD of a certain hospital in the state of Sokoto one day during evening time, I was shocked to have found that more than Twenty patients are therein que, each with his accompany waiting for their blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and respiration to be monitored, that makes the ward extremely crowded, uneasy to breathe air, hot and uncomfortable, yet there were only Two nurses to attend to all of them and others already in the que to see the doctor.
I’d imagine how Two people (not angels) can deal with a high number of Twenty patients in a few time, Nay! That couldn’t happen without hurting someone who think he should be addressed first, on a serious note, Nurses work based on priority and emergency needs of the patients which we called scientifically, “Triage”- this is applied almost everywhere either at the course of accident, fire outbreak, home or at the hospital, however, many people may not understand how it works, in the OPD, it doesn’t matter you are the first person, as long as there is more serious patient than you, he’ll be of concern more than anyone else.
Sometimes, it’s really good to appreciate someone for his hardwork and dedication before you lament him for his mistake, the appreciation little people are showing to nurses is encouraging, and that’s giving a goose to do more and more for the people at our calling, someone may not appreciate you for the thousands and thousands of sacrifices but can easily condemn you for one mistake you commited, that’s our community for today, for how long have you been taken care of by nurses or your pregnant wife by a midwife? When you’re on the hospital bed, have you ever spent more than an hour without seeing a nurse or midwife by your side? Wasn’t that an indication that we are the cardinal part of the hospital? Please appreciate us.
Nurses and midwives go through intense pressure, harassment and mockery, first by co-workers, second by the relatives and third by the patients themselves, a patient in severe pain who’s in labour may rain several insults to the midwife assisting her in the delivery, moreover, the relatives too may rain an insult to the midwife or spit a hurting words to her that she’s not doing her best, or she’s too forming and acting arrogantly not knowing that the work requires calmness and confidence in order not to make a mistake, in this situation nurses got hurt and discouraged but the knowledge of dealing with different people always serves as our screen guard.
Last year, I did told you of a nurse who got slapped by patient relative because he failed to attend to their patient while he was following the administration of the drugs based on the teachings of ‘TRIAGE’, this is another prove that nurses worked extra mile to meet the demand of populace but they are not appreciated enough.
Another thing is that, it’s obviously obvious that a nurse in Nigerian public hospitals may be dealing with large number of patients in a ward, all of these patients may require drugs administration, vital signs taking, and perhaps, a new patient on admission who’ll certainly need cannulation and the commencement of drugs therapy, despite the congestion, work overload, nurses stand firm to see that all these needs are met, the needs may be met lately but they surely will be met, that’s our hardworking statue and we deserve commendation not condemnation as I titled my last year’s article on International Nurses Day.
It’s a fictional chat roaming the streets of social media, I’ve seen it severally on Twitter and Facebook that nurses are not kind or humble, they are arrogant instead, this will always give me a slight headache because that’s totally wrong, I may agree some are as characterized but the majority are not, people such as Zayyanu Basiru, Sulaiman Tunga, Titilayo are nothing littlest to that, it’s just a misunderstanding and sometimes nature of our people, because they enjoy tarnishing other people’s image.
Or may be sometime it happens the relatives try to intrude into somewhere that isn’t allowed, when they got stopped, they blame the personnel, for example it’s not always allowed for a male husband to be in the labour room with his wife especially when the labour room isn’t a private one, but the husband may insist to be in there, he couldn’t be allowed in because there are other women in labour whom he may see if he went in, and don’t forget it’s part of our work to maintain the privacy of our patients, or would you love to see someone gazing at your wife while she was pushing the baby out? No! That’s your answer, I believe.
Furthermore, just like it has been severally shown on TV shows that nurses are a submission and in total order of the doctor, the way they’re highlighting in some Kany- and Nollywood films that nurses don’t know what to do unless they’re told by a doctor, that has never been true, the public should know that, Nurses and Midwives are independent health professionals that undergoes a training in a verified and recognized institution and at the end obtained a certificate and later, licencenced to practice, the matter of fact is that we have dependent, independent and interdependent roles, nothing less and nothing more.
At the end of our course, every nurse or midwife is given an oath of taking, we pledged to work on people to the best of our ability and treat every patient equally, protect their dignity, veil their privacy and share with no one their disease condition until authorized to do so, I believe we all have the pledges resounding in our ears and heart, we can’t forget and we can never exempt that in the course of our duty.
Nurses and midwives are contrary to rudeness, insolence and bad behavior, instead we are professionals who take care of the patients with utmost humility, love and care.
No body on earth love the patient more than a nurse, nurses don’t run away because the wound is dirty, we don’t abscond because the work is too much, we always care, we always love and at the best WE GIVE QUALITY AND WARM CARE.
This is written by Nr. Salihu Usman Shuni, member Caliphate Nurses in commemoration of InternationalNursesDay2022, he can be reached via salihushuni@gmail.com,
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