Recently someone posted a thread on his experience in the hands of nigerian nurses, and it quickly turned into a forum for throwing insults at nigerian nurses. Someone even described them as "a bunch of semi educated savages". Well i only pray he never needs the services of a nurse. This article is not about defending the unprofessional or unethical behaviours and actions of some of my colleagues, rather it is about bringing to bare some of the challenges an average nigerian nurse faces, challenges that if not properly managed, one could lose his cool and allow anger prevail.

Before i go into these challenges proper. I want to make three things stand out. First the nigerian society as a whole does not place due emphasis on ethics and professionalism, and as such rude behaviours are not restricted to nurses only, we are treated badly everywere, wether in the banking hall, airport etc. Customer service is poor.

Secondly, not all the "nurses" you see are actually nurses expecially in private hospitals many of them are quacks trained by doctors illegally to damage the image of our beloved profession so you could refer to them as "semi educated savages" if you like.

Third, anyone can get a degree in nursing but the act and skill of being a nurse is not something any university can teach you. They'll teach you to show compassion but no one can teach you how to show compassion. So if you are wicked and ruthless by nature, being a nurse will not change you. So in my short journey in the profession, i have seen very kindhearted colleagues and i have seen some i will describe as devils.

However, To the issue proper, have you ever taken case of a sick person that is neither your friend nor relation? Its quite a frustrating task. But you may wonder isnt that what a nurse is trained and paid to do? Well that is true but consider the environment and circumstances in which a Nigerian nurse works.

Normally a nurse is suppose to care for about 5 to 7 patients at a time, but because of shortage of nurses however a nurse may end up caring for up to 20 patients at a time, leaving him/her stressed out . Just at that point a patient or patients relation decides to be insolent and rude, sometimes insulting her to her face It takes a core professional to keep his cool without shouting. So probably when that nurse attended to you, she had a lot of anger and frustration inside her.

The hospital ward is often a fierce battle ground, the major warriors being nurses and doctors. Many doctors see themselves as gods in the health sector, and believe that every other professional works for them and under them, therefore they like to treat nurses as inferior and less important, in fact as housemaids. This mentality has been so widely sold out that a lot of people see nurses as merely untrained professionals who take orders from doctors. This reasoning is of course a hopeless fallacy and gross misrepresentation of the truth.

It is considered shamefull for a nurse to allow herself to be used and abused by a doctor. Given that fact, a nurse sometimes has to deal with the pride and ego of a doctor, and in some situations tempers are let on the loose words are exchanged there is bad blood and bitterness everywere, and it all adds to the frustration and tension that a nurse experiences.

But why do doctors not vent their anger on patients too? Well they do, but it is more common to see a nurse vs patient clash than a doctor vs patient clash. This is so because it is the nurse that really spends time with the patient, if you have been on admission in a hospital before, you will recall that you only see the doctor during ward round or when his attention is required, but the nurse is always there with you during his/her shift, a span of time in which she may have many other patients to attend to.

How many of you actually remember to thank your nurse before going home? Well during your stay in the hospital nurses do certain jobs that an average person will run away from, such as passing you a bed pan to vomit, pass urine or feaces. While entertaining insults from other patients .But most patients still see a nurse role as passive, and unimportant. And only remember negative experiences. Hence on their way out they are full of praises for their doctor but hardly appreciate the nurses. Well the truth is without the nurses nobody would have admitted you into the hospital and you would not have been cared for.

Finally how much do nurses earn? Very little compared to the work they do (they work as much as doctors). But do you see them going on strike over every little inconvenience like some other health professionals? No! Because we value human life above money, although i do not blame those who are making serious efforts to leave the country i mean who wouldn't want to work in a better condition with better pay?

Dont judge, you only knw about our mistakes but u dont knw wat we go through. Wat do u expect frm overworked underpaid and underapreciated nurses?

Good write up. You nailed it.

Nice write-up. Someone has to defend the profession, thanks for coming to nurses aid. I believe people need to start researching on the roles of various health care professionals. Nursing is not subservient to other professions.
Medicine is predorminantly male while nursing on the other hand are made up of females mainly, so seeing it from societies point of view; yeah women should be under men which is wrong in this case.
The emergence of college of nursing and midwifery in the country and the increase number of university offering the course will help to enhance the poor image nursing has in this country. With the level of backbiting currently being exhibited by different groups of health professionals in the country, nurses has to up their game and lobby to uplift their image and be a force to recon with in the medical field.
The salary placement of nurses in various government hospitals is not encouraging at all. A lot of challenges is facing the profession which are too numerous to mention.

When some1 posted a thread bashing nigerian nurses, it quickly made front. It is only fair that dis one makes front page 2

OP very nyz article,U only stated the obvious$IMHO ds is nt a defence fr nurses. The health profession needs evry1 to function;Nurses,Pharmacists,Med. Lab. Scts,Physicians,Physiotherapists$even cleaners. Our major problem in this country is that of poor adminstration in d health sector$overbloated ego by some few persons.

I carefully went through your write up...u may be right on some issues but i ll disagree with u on some
1. You said doctors are arrogant and believe they can order nurses around(paraphrased)...i believe this is an issue that has to do with complex...if you know your job as a nurse then you wont see it as merely carrying out the doctor's instruction(which you ought to) but as a team player in restoring health to the patient in question,afterall what you write in your nursing records are the things you observed during your shift and of course the management plan outlined by the doctor(s) for the patients for the nurses to execute.
2. You said the ward is a battle ground...i also disagree...it is whatever you make it. some doctors may be rude, but if there is no crack in the wall the lizard cant gain entry....i had an experience with a nurse who called me in d middle of the night that my attention was needed on d ward,when i asked her what d problem was..she said a patient complained of weakness and dizziness...behold when i got to d ward this patient had no records of her vital signs..not even temperature...by the time i checked her BP..i discoverd she was in shock so i commenced resuscitation...would have been wrong to be angry with that nurse who was busy writing nursing process and records while a patient was dying on her ward...and who didnt even join me in the process?
3.You equally said u work as much as doctors do......hmmmm, lets make this comparism...a nurse resumes for morning duty 7:30am and hands over to afternoon shift by 1pm.....afternoon shift runs till 7:30pm....while night runs till the following morning and if u are on night duty for 7days,then you get 7days off work
Now compare to a doctor who resumes 8am attends to patient till 4pm(depends.on the unit,may be later than 4) and then if he is on call will stay behind till the next morning only to change and resume normal duties and close by 4pm that is if he is not the one on call again.....and on weekend call duty he resumes 8am on friday and leaves the hospital 4pm on monday.....do still think nurses work as much as doctors? besides nurses cover a single ward during their 7hr shift...but a doctor covers several wards including the theatre during his/her call.

@dr9ce,why are you complaining about our shift duty? Are you guys not collecting your call allowance? So don't complain cos you are being paid handsomely for it. Some drs resume by 9am and leave by 12, I have seen that happen.you only review the patient briefly but the nurse has to monitor the patient 24hrs, you think that is easy? Try being a nurse for one day! We deal with abusive patients and relatives during our shift and you think that's a childs play. Nursing and medicine are two parallel lines that can never meet.

@prettychyna, if u observe well u ll see that i never complained...i was only making a comparism which i expect u to refute if i am wrong...i love my job and i enjoy what i do.If i said anything wrong in my post(above) pls correct me...i'm earnestly waiting!

@dr9ce,you don't have to compare because we don't do the same work, so you don't expect the hours to be the same. you insinuated that we don't work as much as you do by comparing the hours,and I was trying to let you know that we don't do the same thing so there should be no basis for comparison. Mind you,most of your colleagues complain about our roaster,don't even know why they should poke nose in other people's affair in the first place.
Thanks

obviously! no basis for conparison...doctors do the brain work...nurses carry out the plan..and a few gud nurses does that well

pardon me...comparison

[quote author=Dr9ce]I carefully went through your write up...u may be right on some issues but i ll disagree with u on some
1. You said doctors are arrogant and believe they can order nurses around(paraphrased)...i believe this is an issue that has to do with complex...if you know your job as a nurse then you wont see it as merely carrying out the doctor's instruction(which you ought to) but as a team player in restoring health to the patient in question,afterall what you write in your nursing records are the things you observed during your shift and of course the management plan outlined by the doctor(s) for the patients for the nurses to execute.
2. You said the ward is a battle ground...i also disagree...it is whatever you make it. some doctors may be rude, but if there is no crack in the wall the lizard cant gain entry....i had an experience with a nurse who called me in d middle of the night that my attention was needed on d ward,when i asked her what d problem was..she said a patient complained of weakness and dizziness...behold when i got to d ward this patient had no records of her vital signs..not even temperature...by the time i checked her BP..i discoverd she was in shock so i commenced resuscitation...would have been wrong to be angry with that nurse who was busy writing nursing process and records while a patient was dying on her ward...and who didnt even join me in the process?
3.You equally said u work as much as doctors do......hmmmm, lets make this comparism...a nurse resumes for morning duty 7:30am and hands over to afternoon shift by 1pm.....afternoon shift runs till 7:30pm....while night runs till the following morning and if u are on night duty for 7days,then you get 7days off work
Now compare to a doctor who resumes 8am attends to patient till 4pm(depends.on the unit,may be later than 4) and then if he is on call will stay behind till the next morning only to change and resume normal duties and close by 4pm that is if he is not the one on call again.....and on weekend call duty he resumes 8am on friday and leaves the hospital 4pm on monday.....do still think nurses work as much as doctors? besides nurses cover a single ward during their 7hr shift...but a doctor covers several wards including the theatre during his/her call.

perioperative and anastethic nurses also work til 4pm nd do call 2, nd their call duty alowance is smaller dan urs. in some hospitals monin shift end by 4pm and afternoon by 8pm. Talking about atending 2 patients in difrnt wards, u only go there wen ur atention is needed true or false? But a nurse is working al through

Doctors and nurses

Prettychyna: @dr9ce,why are you complaining about our shift duty? Are you guys not collecting your call allowance? So don't complain cos you are being paid handsomely for it. Some drs resume by 9am and leave by 12, I have seen that happen.you only review the patient briefly but the nurse has to monitor the patient 24hrs, you think that is easy? Try being a nurse for one day! We deal with abusive patients and relatives during our shift and you think that's a childs play. Nursing and medicine are two parallel lines that can never meet.

madam its easier said but not so in practice. I do have alot of things I could have said to some of the points u raised but far be it for me to make such comments here. I will just leave it at that cos I respect the nursing profession more so than some of ur colleagues respect the medical profession but I will always have a phobia for nurses cos of what I went thru at their hand at my first 3 months of housejob..

Your write up is 2long, try 2 summarize nxt tym

the same applies to the pharmacist,doctors makes alot of blunders when they are writing prescription,and wen the pharmacist rectify such errors they are usually angry,to hell with doctors for all i care,i blame naija poor org for this

Stegomiah: Your write up 2 long, try 2 summarize nxt tym

lazy student or reader lol

drnoel:

madam its easier said but not so in practice. I do have alot of things I could have said to some of the points u raised but far be it for me to make such comments here. I will just leave it at that cos I respect the nursing profession more so than some of ur colleague respect the medocal profession but I will always have a phobia for nurses cos of what I went thru in their hand at my first 3 months of house job..

go ahead,am listening what happen?

Don't know y d nurses A̶̲̥̅rε̲̣̣̣̥ complaining bout d nature of dia work, no mata ur profession, be proud of Ȋ̝̊̅̄†̥, even if U̶̲̥̅̊ b carpenter

I believe that doctors and nurses are members of the same health care team with the head being d dr n whos primary responsibility is to give the best care possible to our patients. To come on a social forum and start this war of words is plain patethic.[quote author=the planmaker][/quote]

For every patient the doctor sees the nurse must have seen that patient too.we are not draging who is a god here.thou it is common knwoledge that most doctors look down on other health professionals.this is a very bad attitude as a all parts of the medical profession is very important.the nurses deserve a lot of appreciation cos it takes a lot to tend to a sickone.nurses dy try

Subscribing!!!

There may be good nurses out there, but truth be said, 90% of Nigerian nurses is a disgrace to there profession. Yes i call them 'bunch of semi-educated savages' and you will agree with me if you have had an encounter with them. their services are so unprofessional! and they are not friendly with patients, especially the poor looking ones.
@ mods, i was typing and my fingers mistakenly pressed enter, hence the 'b' am surprised that the post got hidden even before i finished editing..

Wow! Am in love with this thread just hope i get to learn a lot from here.

op, change ur profession if u cant tolerate the abuse stop beefing. If u are up to the task no profession can sideline yours...........

AVWENAGHA:

who be dis again

sorry dear, i mistakenly pressed 'b' on my keyboard, on my attempt to press backspace, i pressed enter , hence the 'b'.

vision2050: op, change ur profession if u cant tolerate the abuse stop beefing. If u are up to the task no profession can sideline yours...........

guess you did'nt read her article well cuz if you did, you ain't gonna write this. Jst wtf!