₦airaland Forum

arinzest:
am very sorry for your loss sir. as a father of 3 i empathise wt u. as an obstetrician, i've read what you and others have written n want to clarify smths.

jaundice will not manifest at birth unless in cases of severe intrauterine hemolysis. it takes at least 24 hours. many causes of neonatal jaundice abound but d commonest is physiologic. despite past history of NNJ, ur baby will only be monitored closely by d neonatologists unless it was a clear case of jaundice wt known cause. prophylactic phototherapy would be commenced but in most centers, phototherapy units are not even rnough for the cases of frank jaundice, smths two babies share one unit. not that d doctors n nurses dnt knw d risks but its better than no phototherapy.

the bane of out job is dt we dnt have time to explain in details to relatives as in other climes. clinical staff are overworked. the nurse said 2 nurses manned night shift and pple were alarmed.

i work in a federal medical center in d east, u nurses man a 12 beded labour ward in d only functional tertiary center in d state during night shift. d whole of labour ward unit have 12 nurses.

please note dt an embargo on unemployment was on since last year and was just lifted. we are understaffed

am sorry for d ones lost. i remember d names and faces of every woman i lost. i cant bring them back. none of us can but hosp staff really work their arses off for their patients. i knw dt sm state facilities have poorly motivated staff due to owed salaries but d federal hosp staff really do their best.

as a corp member in 2007, i was d only doctor in 2 local governments. d only trained nurses n scientists on ground were corp members but we saved lives

for the many saved, we God thanks, for the few we lost, we carry d scars. no doctor, nurse, scientist or pharmacist will want to lose a patient. even DNR (do not resuscitate) patients, even wn d books tell u its useless, we still hang on n pray God.

Our system is in shanbles but its what we have. our university system make doctors, nurses dt can hold their own anywhere. presently, d UK home office has waived many restrictns for nurses from Africa. we will lose more to them.

we really need massive infrastructural investments in our healthcare sector

IamforGod:
Nusre pls are u saying ur salary is more important than a life?

I believe u dnt av passion for ur job!

U dnt know what it means to be dead and gone for ever? Yh that's right U AV NEVER BEEN DEAD!

So u telling me a card and admission what
ever is more important than a man's life?

DeRay98:
Most of the problems in our health care are due to administrative incompetence and poor planning.
All Health ministers are Medical doctors, all health commissioners are medical doctors, all state and federal health management boards or committees are heavily dominated by medical doctors. All Chief medical directors of all hospitals are Medical doctors.
Therefore, decision-making in health care systems and institutions are dominated by medical doctors and since they are unquestionable and unanswerable to any other, they are to blame.
Nigerian Medical Association has become more of a political organization than an apex health professionals body, they claim to be fighting for better health care but all they do bully paramedical professionals, cover up mismanagement by their colleagues, blame non-medical professionals and allocate budgetary provisions to themselves, use appropriated funds to buy out-dated,substandard or refurbished equipment even when budget was made for standard state of the art equipment.
i have a friend who sells medical equipment, if you get to hear what he experiences in dealing with govts hospital and health ministry mgt.
No medical equipment purchase request can be approved or purchased without the admin or hospital management MDs (if not the commissioner) signing the approval.
Budget for medical equipment are made with prices for the latest or modern equipment with are usually very expensive (often 3-4x the actual cost, to provide for some %tage to some top officials). Once the budget is approved, the equipment eventually purchased is usually of less quality and specifications approved for purchase the rest of the funds is pocketed and covered up by the beneficiaries.
After a couple of years, often less than the warranty period, the equipment becomes faulty as expected, are left unserviced for a while and finally auctioned and bought by same Doctors for their own private clinics often at ridiculously lower rate than market price.
Any health care system is comprised of a team of all health care (Medical, Para-medical, non-medical) personnel. An experienced medical doctor is traditionally the head or captain of the team and as such carry the team along for effectiveness. All health care is not about Medical doctors alone, all members of the team have inputs that helps the MD to effectively manage the health of a pat.
But in Nigeria, these other health care team members are looked down on or disrespected by medical doctors. sometimes, MDs wants people to believe that these other professions are irrelevant and they can be done without.
Nobody else advises govts. on health care policies and expenditure other than medical doctors, if the policies are failing, facilities are under staffed, under equipped etc, blame for their failure to do the needful. the frequents strikes they embark of for better working conditions are often presented to the public as demands for equipment and facility, in fact, they are usually for their salaries, allowances and remunerations.
The consultants no longer have time to supervise their residents, they run around using govt time to attend private patients in several private hospitals or their private hospitals/clinics.
The worst culprits are the administrative doctors, event young medical doctors are victims too.
Until Nigerians begin to make hospitals answer questions on questionable deaths of relatives, the situation will remain.
The poor justice system in Nigeria also means that people cannot wait for the length of time it takes to get justice, the cover-up of questionable deaths and injuries by other doctors to avoid justice, the believe that doctors are demi-gods by many uninformed people also does not help matters. In the civilised countries, the fear of malpractice suits by aggrieved patients or relatives of patients put the doctors on the alert.
I expect fireworks from MDs and many uninformed doctors-worshipping wailers here

LadyFiona:
I am a nurse, where I work hospital bureaucracy and policies has to be obeyed or I risked getting sacked, and believe me I do not want to be sacked and nobody will like to be sacked for disobeying an established protocols and saving "human lives" after all what's the hospital for. Why must the procurment of the equipment also falls on the shoulders of the foot soilders while the owners/ government goes Scott free??. What will my dependants do in this harsh economic situation we are in and what will I write in my résumé and who will recommend me to be employed knowing that Nigerians do not value selfless service.??

dicefrost:
I have read quite a handful of stories about unfortunate and preventable deaths in our hospitals, both private and public. Some have touched me personally, especially when it involves a pregnant woman, or a young promising life like the uniport student. For anyone who has been a victim, no amount consolation would be enough to pacify the pain of losing a loved one. As a nurse, i have seen this scenario play out time and again, to the point that i have grown thick skin, but i still feel deeply for anyone who has lost a loved one in death. Death is usually more painful when it could have been avoid. But in Nigerian hospitals, avoidable deaths tend to be more common. Believe me, only a few actually come to public knowledge. And when it does, one set of healthcare professionals are often at the receiving end of the vituperation and opprobrium it generates ; The NURSES!. They are the easiest to vilify, and push around. Often times, we only hear one side of these stories, that is the deseased's side, or in rare cases we hear the side of the hospital management. This article is not meant to exonerate nurses from all blame, (sometimes they are directly responsible) it is meant to tell one of such stories from the nurse's angle.

If we look at these stories carefully with an open mind you would discover one major problem in our hospitals, and that is lack of equipments. Like in the case of the upth student, the problem was lack of bed space. We only heard the story from one side, and we vilified the nurses and doctors, and berated them for not finding an alternative. Well i wasn't at upth, so i have no idea what really happened. But i have lost a patient in similar fashion before, and i was almost beaten up by the patient's relatives, so i can relate. In my own case, we were only two nurses on duty, myself and another nurse who was pregnant at the time. We were covering the emergency and labour ward together.

The patient in question arrived with his family members, he was in obvious distress, but his condition did not seem life threatening at the time. Myself and my colleague were both in the labour room, trying to deliver a baby with breech presentation, an extremely risky procedure. When i heard their shout for attention, i left my colleague alone to handle the delivery (which was risky) in order to attend to the new patient. There was no bed space, so i simply spread a blanket on the ground for him to lie on. The family members protested, but i had neither the time nor the patience to explain and negotiate with them. I explained our admission procedure to them, told them to pay for a card, and purchase the A&E kit. Once again, they protested that they had no money. I explained to them that given the fact that he had been vomiting and stooling, he would need i.v infusion immediately. I put a call across to the doctor on call, who was equally busy, and headed back to the labour room.

After about 30 minutes, the doctor arrived. The family had not purchased the A&E kit, neither had they paid for a card. So he referred them to a teaching hospital and left for the theater. They called me out a few minutes later, this time one of them had an i.v infusion with him, which he had gone to buy from a local chemist that night. They begged me to give him the infusion. I explained to them that the hospital policy does not permit me to insert a canula into a patient's vein, hence they have to wait for the doctor. I left them again, and called the doctor to inform him. The doctor came back, and insisted that they should go to the teaching hospital.

About thirty minutes later, i heard a loud shout, and rushed out to see what was happening. Behold, our patient was unconscious, and almost not breathing. I advised the family to quickly take him to the teaching hospital, because we do not have equipments to resuscitate him. They requested for an ambulance and someone to accompany them. There was a problem, we only had one ambulance driver, and he doesn't work night shifts, and more so we had no personnel to spare for the trip. All hell broke loose, the family members began to shout and make threats. I had to hide my head. I left them and went back to the labour room. I did not hear from them again that night, until the morning after when hoodlums invaded the hospital, bearing matchets and sticks. I scaled the hospital fence and got away. The doctor and the morning nurses weren't so fortunate, they vandalised cars and beat them up.

The boy died, but the story that was circulated was that " because they had no money, the wicked nurse refused to attend to them, and left them to go and sleep elsewhere. When they even bought drip from a chemist, the wicked nurse refused to give their son the drip, insisting that they must buy from the hospital." No one considered the fact that the overworked nurse was busy handling another delicate situation, and could not focus attention on a patient who has not been admitted. Now you must be wondering, since it was an emergency, why did we not just attend to the patient and worry about the money later? My answer; HOSPITAL POLICY. If i admit the patient, and use the hospital's consumables without the patient paying for it, the bill would be subtracted from my salary, after i am issued a query. If the bills of 3 or 4 patients are subtracted from my salary, how much would be left?. The best i could do was to refer them to the teaching hospital, where they ll receiving free emergency treatment for 24 hours before payment.

Now, let us examine the most recent case. When the man arrived with his wife, the nurses told him straight away to go to igando general hospital, because there was no doctor. But he refused, insisting that the hospital was too big not to have a doctor on call. But it is very possible that the hospital may have only one doctor, who cannot work for 24 hours. I have seen such scenarios alot. There are unreasonable restrictions placed on nurses in nigeria today, our scope of practice is unjustly limited. Hence, when a nurse refuses to touch a patient, she is probably afraid of crossing a line and indicting herself. So when there is no doctor, and the hospital policy prevents the nurse from doing what he/she knows, what do you expect the nurse to do?. That was probably why the nurses insisted that he take his wife to igando. But the man stubbornly carried his wife into the hospital himself. When he insisted, the nurses probably out of pity cautiously did the little they could do without crossing a line, which was obviously inadequate.

When he agreed to go, the nurses did not have the key to the ambulance, maybe the ambulance driver was not on duty! Again, the nurses did not want to accompany him, probably because they were already understaffed and overbooked, and had no one to spare. Do we know how many nurses where on duty? What about the doctor who arrived late? It is also possible that he is the only doctor in the hospital, and works 8 to 4pm like everyone else. If he leaves his house at all that night, he is only doing you a favour, he is not paid to work at that time. It sounds cruel, but that is the truth.

When he got to igando, there was no bed space! Are the health workers to blame for that? Peharps, while he waited for what seemed like an eternity, the nurses were frantically making efforts to secure a bed space for the patient. And then the money issue came, which i have already dealt with.

I can assure you of one small truth. The issue will be swept under the carpet, because if it is investigated constructively, the blame will fall largely on the government. Our health sector is in shambles, it needs massive investment, in terms of man power and infrastructure. Until this happen, we cannot continue to heap all the blame on our hardworking doctors and nurses. They are just like the soldiers sent to confront boko haram without weapons. They deserve our sympathy, not insults. When next a nurse in a public hospital seem not to perform to your expectation, it may be because her hands are tied!




Lalasticlala, dominique, give us a chance to defend ourselves

DeRay98:
Most of the problems in our health care are due to administrative incompetence and poor planning.

Nigerian Medical Association has become more of a political organization than an apex health professionals body, they claim to be fighting for better health care but all they do bully paramedical professionals, cover up mismanagement by their colleagues, blame non-medical professionals and allocate budgetary provisions to themselves, use appropriated funds to buy out-dated,substandard or refurbished equipment even when budget was made for standard state of the art equipment.
i have a friend who sells medical equipment, if you get to hear what he experiences in dealing with govts hospital and health ministry mgt.
No medical equipment purchase request can be approved or purchased without the admin or hospital management MDs (if not the commissioner) signing the approval.
Budget for medical equipment are made with prices for the latest or modern equipment with are usually very expensive (often 3-4x the actual cost, to provide for some %tage to some top officials). Once the budget is approved, the equipment eventually purchased is usually of less quality and specifications approved for purchase the rest of the funds is pocketed and covered up by the beneficiaries.
After a couple of years, often less than the warranty period, the equipment becomes faulty as expected, are left unserviced for a while and finally auctioned and bought by same Doctors for their own private clinics often at ridiculously lower rate than market price.


But in Nigeria, these other health care team members are looked down on or disrespected by medical doctors. sometimes, MDs wants people to believe that these other professions are irrelevant and they can be done without.
Nobody else advises govts. on health care policies and expenditure other than medical doctors, if the policies are failing, facilities are under staffed, under equipped etc, blame for their failure to do the needful. the frequents strikes they embark of for better working conditions are often presented to the public as demands for equipment and facility, in fact, they are usually for their salaries, allowances and remunerations.
The consultants no longer have time to supervise their residents, they run around using govt time to attend private patients in several private hospitals or their private hospitals/clinics.

The worst culprits are the administrative doctors, event young medical doctors are victims too.
Until Nigerians begin to make hospitals answer questions on questionable deaths of relatives, the situation will remain.

The poor justice system in Nigeria also means that people cannot wait for the length of time it takes to get justice, the cover-up of questionable deaths and injuries by other doctors to avoid justice, the believe that doctors are demi-gods by many uninformed people also does not help matters. In the civilised countries, the fear of malpractice suits by aggrieved patients or relatives of patients put the doctors on the alert.

I expect fireworks from MDs and many uninformed doctors-worshipping wailers here

stereo:
How did you talk to them when they arrived seeing their anxiety and worry? Look, you guys have to be trained in managing emergencies in the way to talk to your patients and their relatives.

Your profession needs people who can show compassion in the face of distress.
It is a profession for people who genuinely care about others.

I know the Nigerian government is filled with uncompassionate people but our health workers must stand out.
There are many things I want to say.

My main point here is even if you're without COMPASSION, learn to show it.

IamforGod:
You are contradicting yourself ma'am

I'd rather be sacked than have someone die intentionally on my watch!

When I opened this thread I thot I was going to seen excuses that wud make my head calm. And I came here disappointed!


I repeat I pray u dnt find urself in emergency situations that ordinary card will prevent them from attending to you!

I just confirmed the fact that nigerian nurses are pure evil!

richyfunky:
Nigerian Nurses & Doctors can be cruel & heartless, when a case is life threatening, you do everything to save that life cos that's shud be ur No.1 priority instead of giving excuses. LIFE NO GET DUPLICATE

LadyFiona:
Does it matter anymore, your mind is made up concerning nurses. I have done my best and I am not here to give excuses. I won't be a scapegoat for anybody in the course of my practice as a nurse. I have priority and passion for human life but at the detriment of my life and family. .......Call me wicked and I don't give a hoot.

I have seen doctors and nurses being slapped and beaten because of this " calling" .

My only saving grace is that I know how to sweet talk or is it TLC ..come on that's my turf but having a patient's bill being deducted from my meagre salary is an overkill.

What are you their for, if not to be donating to the hospitals and be paying hospital bills too, huh? Go out there and help people instead of picking on the few remaining health workers who are working their butts off to maintain sanity in our health institutions.

donodion:
LadyFiona, mentorandfriend, Deray98, dicefrost, ameenahz...if you guys wont mind, I'd like to add as followers on this section of the forum.Please indicate if Ok with you.

donodion:
LadyFiona, mentorandfriend, Deray98, dicefrost, ameenahz...if you guys wont mind, I'd like to add as followers on this section of the forum.Please indicate if Ok with you.

IamforGod:
Lol! You are just like a soldier saying I dnt want to go to war, I dnt want to die!

Like I told the op U SIGNED UP FOR IT b

I av never heard of people dying becos they helped someone live!

donodion:
LadyFiona, mentorandfriend, Deray98, dicefrost, ameenahz...if you guys wont mind, I'd like to add as followers on this section of the forum.Please indicate if Ok with you.

Leopantro:
Nobody cares, we Nigerians want the best treatment without payment, are you not paid to do your work. After all, nobody forced you to be a nurse or a doctor.

The above is the typical reasoning of most Nigerians who will read your writeup

IamforGod:
Lol! You are just like a soldier saying I dnt want to go to war, I dnt want to die!

Like I told the op U SIGNED UP FOR IT b

I av never heard of people dying becos they helped someone live!

dicefrost:
I have read quite a handful of stories about unfortunate and preventable deaths in our hospitals, both private and public. Some have touched me personally, especially when it involves a pregnant woman, or a young promising life like the uniport student. For anyone who has been a victim, no amount consolation would be enough to pacify the pain of losing a loved one. As a nurse, i have seen this scenario play out time and again, to the point that i have grown thick skin, but i still feel deeply for anyone who has lost a loved one in death. Death is usually more painful when it could have been avoid. But in Nigerian hospitals, avoidable deaths tend to be more common. Believe me, only a few actually come to public knowledge. And when it does, one set of healthcare professionals are often at the receiving end of the vituperation and opprobrium it generates ; The NURSES!. They are the easiest to vilify, and push around. Often times, we only hear one side of these stories, that is the deseased's side, or in rare cases we hear the side of the hospital management. This article is not meant to exonerate nurses from all blame, (sometimes they are directly responsible) it is meant to tell one of such stories from the nurse's angle.

If we look at these stories carefully with an open mind you would discover one major problem in our hospitals, and that is lack of equipments. Like in the case of the upth student, the problem was lack of bed space. We only heard the story from one side, and we vilified the nurses and doctors, and berated them for not finding an alternative. Well i wasn't at upth, so i have no idea what really happened. But i have lost a patient in similar fashion before, and i was almost beaten up by the patient's relatives, so i can relate. In my own case, we were only two nurses on duty, myself and another nurse who was pregnant at the time. We were covering the emergency and labour ward together.

The patient in question arrived with his family members, he was in obvious distress, but his condition did not seem life threatening at the time. Myself and my colleague were both in the labour room, trying to deliver a baby with breech presentation, an extremely risky procedure. When i heard their shout for attention, i left my colleague alone to handle the delivery (which was risky) in order to attend to the new patient. There was no bed space, so i simply spread a blanket on the ground for him to lie on. The family members protested, but i had neither the time nor the patience to explain and negotiate with them. I explained our admission procedure to them, told them to pay for a card, and purchase the A&E kit. Once again, they protested that they had no money. I explained to them that given the fact that he had been vomiting and stooling, he would need i.v infusion immediately. I put a call across to the doctor on call, who was equally busy, and headed back to the labour room.

After about 30 minutes, the doctor arrived. The family had not purchased the A&E kit, neither had they paid for a card. So he referred them to a teaching hospital and left for the theater. They called me out a few minutes later, this time one of them had an i.v infusion with him, which he had gone to buy from a local chemist that night. They begged me to give him the infusion. I explained to them that the hospital policy does not permit me to insert a canula into a patient's vein, hence they have to wait for the doctor. I left them again, and called the doctor to inform him. The doctor came back, and insisted that they should go to the teaching hospital.

About thirty minutes later, i heard a loud shout, and rushed out to see what was happening. Behold, our patient was unconscious, and almost not breathing. I advised the family to quickly take him to the teaching hospital, because we do not have equipments to resuscitate him. They requested for an ambulance and someone to accompany them. There was a problem, we only had one ambulance driver, and he doesn't work night shifts, and more so we had no personnel to spare for the trip. All hell broke loose, the family members began to shout and make threats. I had to hide my head. I left them and went back to the labour room. I did not hear from them again that night, until the morning after when hoodlums invaded the hospital, bearing matchets and sticks. I scaled the hospital fence and got away. The doctor and the morning nurses weren't so fortunate, they vandalised cars and beat them up.

The boy died, but the story that was circulated was that " because they had no money, the wicked nurse refused to attend to them, and left them to go and sleep elsewhere. When they even bought drip from a chemist, the wicked nurse refused to give their son the drip, insisting that they must buy from the hospital." No one considered the fact that the overworked nurse was busy handling another delicate situation, and could not focus attention on a patient who has not been admitted. Now you must be wondering, since it was an emergency, why did we not just attend to the patient and worry about the money later? My answer; HOSPITAL POLICY. If i admit the patient, and use the hospital's consumables without the patient paying for it, the bill would be subtracted from my salary, after i am issued a query. If the bills of 3 or 4 patients are subtracted from my salary, how much would be left?. The best i could do was to refer them to the teaching hospital, where they ll receiving free emergency treatment for 24 hours before payment.

Now, let us examine the most recent case. When the man arrived with his wife, the nurses told him straight away to go to igando general hospital, because there was no doctor. But he refused, insisting that the hospital was too big not to have a doctor on call. But it is very possible that the hospital may have only one doctor, who cannot work for 24 hours. I have seen such scenarios alot. There are unreasonable restrictions placed on nurses in nigeria today, our scope of practice is unjustly limited. Hence, when a nurse refuses to touch a patient, she is probably afraid of crossing a line and indicting herself. So when there is no doctor, and the hospital policy prevents the nurse from doing what he/she knows, what do you expect the nurse to do?. That was probably why the nurses insisted that he take his wife to igando. But the man stubbornly carried his wife into the hospital himself. When he insisted, the nurses probably out of pity cautiously did the little they could do without crossing a line, which was obviously inadequate.

When he agreed to go, the nurses did not have the key to the ambulance, maybe the ambulance driver was not on duty! Again, the nurses did not want to accompany him, probably because they were already understaffed and overbooked, and had no one to spare. Do we know how many nurses where on duty? What about the doctor who arrived late? It is also possible that he is the only doctor in the hospital, and works 8 to 4pm like everyone else. If he leaves his house at all that night, he is only doing you a favour, he is not paid to work at that time. It sounds cruel, but that is the truth.

When he got to igando, there was no bed space! Are the health workers to blame for that? Peharps, while he waited for what seemed like an eternity, the nurses were frantically making efforts to secure a bed space for the patient. And then the money issue came, which i have already dealt with.

I can assure you of one small truth. The issue will be swept under the carpet, because if it is investigated constructively, the blame will fall largely on the government. Our health sector is in shambles, it needs massive investment, in terms of man power and infrastructure. Until this happen, we cannot continue to heap all the blame on our hardworking doctors and nurses. They are just like the soldiers sent to confront boko haram without weapons. They deserve our sympathy, not insults. When next a nurse in a public hospital seem not to perform to your expectation, it may be because her hands are tied!




Lalasticlala, dominique, give us a chance to defend ourselves

richyfunky:
Nigerian Nurses & Doctors can be cruel & heartless, when a case is life threatening, you do everything to save that life cos that's shud be ur No.1 priority instead of giving excuses. LIFE NO GET DUPLICATE

dicefrost:
Nobody works 24hrs. We shud have had 4 drivers, doing shifts and working weekends. But the government employed only one! Shall we make him work 24hrs?

LadyFiona:
I didn't see your response before replying him.
Surely, there is a crass lack of understanding of how the health system works especially in Nigeria.

figo05:
If men learn d harbit of saving no matter how small, their won't be running helter skelter when money is needed

LadyFiona:
Hmmmm, you've not seen anything.

I have been on night duty with two ward maids who doubles as my assistants, with three patients in active phase of labour.
I have delivered babies with Nokia torchlight strapped on my hairnet, sutured perineal tears with kerosene lanterns.

No wonder my professional colleagues are writing NCLEX-RN, GFNS, TOEFL and other exams with acronyms I can't remember just to get at of this hellhole.

@topic, nurses are always at the receiving end because they are at the forefront of health service delivery.

donodion:
LadyFiona, mentorandfriend, Deray98, dicefrost, ameenahz...if you guys wont mind, I'd like to add as followers on this section of the forum.Please indicate if Ok with you.