Nursing workforce insecurity: A call for immediate action
By Ahmad Deedat
Recently, nursing workforce insecurity has reached epidemic proportions. Assaults on nurses/midwives have poured more fuel to the envisage.
Forgive my pool of sarcasm, but anger is often the purest expression of care I have. A few years ago, we had an instance when a nurse was beaten and battered down a stair-case, resulting in miscarriage of her twin babies. On a similar narration, a nurse was threatened at a gun point simply because she said the inevitable to a patient “no bed space”.
There was one who had to hide under the bed of a postpartum patient to escape assault. All these narratives occurred at the largest hospital in the state, yet nothing was done to prevent further occurrence of such tragedy. These are just the facet of how nursing job has grown unsecured.
Just yesterday, we received yet another tragic narration. A felon came in with a patient to Khalifa Isyaka Rabi’u Pediatric Hospital. Now, we know the nature of disapproval by patients’ relatives when we’re not up to their taste, but it doesn’t call for depreciating the core value of our job. Obviously, the felon dared to give two dirty consecutive “slaps” to the nurse on duty, coupled with battery.
This is graceless, unacceptable and indecorous. We cannot live amongst people who consistently fail to appreciate our worth, value, and sacrifice.
Nurses, despite our pivotal role in healthcare service, we believe perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. However, I fear the patience of the young nurses have run thin. The consequences might lead to decisive, yet uncivil, actions.
Unlike other professions, nurses leaders and union have grown too soft, they hardly see tragedy as what it is “a tragedy”. They blurred the line so often that the younger generation failed to conceive what is what. I gathered it’s time to change the narration. The young have grown as they shall, or well on the path, precisely.
We stress that the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) should pressurize and certainly reach to the bottom of this lingering depressing narrative by:
1. Withdrawing the services of nurses/midwives from Khalifa Isyaka Rabi’u Pediatric Hospitalal until security measure are assured
2. Ensure that the culprit is taken to court of law to reap what he sow
3. Recruit a legal practitioner to file a lawsuit to claim damage, and ensure effective argument in court
4. The leadership should organize a sensitization program on the lingering incidents of assaults on nurses/midwives.
The goal of this article is not only to punish the miscreant, but to also prevent further occurrence of similar incident in the near or distant future.
To chew some cud, we’re aware of the routine way that have been employed by NANNM to address similar issues. However, not for once the end product change a thing. A nurse would be assaulted, NANNM would file a law suit , and eventually the culprit will be set free, only to come back to do it again. Sad.
It’s our strong belief that, with service withdrawal, the public and government will gather our outmost value and sacrifices, ultimately, ensuring our safety in our workplaces. Therefore, NANNM must make the hard call. Now or never!
Deedat is a patriotic nurses!
Writes from Kano, Nigeria
19/11/2024.
