#JOHESUStrike2018: The Importance Of Nurses And The Struggle Within The Nigerian Health Care System By Avalon
Its been more than a week since JOHESU began their strike action, and we can all clearly see how much Nurses are needed to run and man healthcare facilities. For now the strike action is limited to Federal Health Institutions and in the first few days we had the NMA and Doctors posturing that they could manage without Nurses and other members of JOHESU.
Now the story seems to be changing. They can’t take the work load and are reportedly refering patients to private practices.
To this one twitter user wrote: “They are asking members of JOHESU to think about the human cost… but the cmd’s claimed they can handle the hospital without other health workers.. how market?
JOHESU demands are quite stright forward in a sense, all they are asking for is:
1. The upward adjustment of the consolidated health salary structure (CONHESS) as was done for the consolidated medical salary structure (CONMESS). They are not asking to be paid the same as doctors as peddled by some unscrupulous elements.
2. Implementation of court judgements and gazetted governmenr circulars
3. Employent of additional healthcare professionals.
Now this is of utmost importance to nurses because in most facilities sometimes you have just 2 nurses to about 15 – 20 patients and they are expected to man the wards, secure the facility, make sure the patients who have not paid their bill dont escape at night (as security men) and still answer to all calls and needs.
4. Arrears of skipping of conhess 10
5. Upward review of retirement age from 60 to 65
Daily Trust published an article yesterday with the caption”JOHESU Stop The Strike” I took a few minutes to check their achieves to see if they had written such during any of the doctors strikes and my search revealed a whooping number ZERO, NADA, Ziltch…
An except from the article reads:
“We condemn this strike in its entirety because any time health workers and or doctors go on strike it cripples the health sector and leads to death of patients. It is against their work of compassion to look the other way while patients are neglected and suffer. Even if they are aggrieved because government refuses to honour an agreement, they should not be going on strike as it only affects the ordinary man.
Health workers feel that doctors are getting the upper hand, such as being made Medical Directors and Ministers of Health and even becoming Consultants. They also want these positions. As far as we are concerned there is no basis for comparison as they all have their training in their respective fields.
Dear Daily Trust Editorial team in case you missed this, for Nurses the following are prized so much:
– The need to be validated and trusted as an expert by people with more power in the organization’s hierarchy;
– Advocates for patients’ needs, especially in the face of opposition by other personnel or by organizational rules;
– Recognizing and valuing the humanity of nursing – the “invisible work” that goes into forming relationships with patients and their families
– And emphasis on the importance of teamwork;
Its no news that nurses are the largest segment of the health-care workforce in our facilities, yet it isnt a hidden fact that most nurses feel disrespected, unappreciated, underpayed, overlooked and powerless in this profession.
Studies have actually shown that nurses who perceive themselves as empowered in the workplace have better patient outcomes and patient satisfaction scores not to mention actually feeling good about their day to day activities in their facilities.
But that doesnt seem to be the case here in Nigeria were most nurses are worked to the bone for meager pay and always identified as to blame when ever something goes wrong since to most of the public everyone who wears white is a nurse (Quacks Im looking at you here in addition to those who train and recruit them)
Its also no news that Quacks these days take to facebook to post pictures of themselves celebrating thier graduation after a maximum 3 month program as “NURSES”, now it seems they have taken it down to Twitter.
Yesterday, I came across a twitter handle “@iam_animash” where he wrote:
“Good day twitter fams, my friend has a National Diploma in Medical & Dental Nursing and a certificate in Auxiliary Nursing. She’s currently in need of a job, please help retweet, her employer might be on your timeline…”
As at 8pm Nigerian Time the post had at least 600 retweets and 303 likes with comments like: “congratulations nurse”, “so proud of you” and so much more…
But a few persons took the poster to task on his post advising him and his friend on the illegality of his post and what his friend studied.
And by this morning the post had been deleated
TO BE CONTINUED
