The Cry Of Ghanaian Nurse

The cry of the Ghanaian nurse !!
The cry of the Ghanaian nurse !!!
Who hears the cry of the nurse
Enrolled Nurse/Community Health Nurse undergoes two years training and is a certificate holder.

Staff Nurse/Midwife under goes three years training and is a diplomat holder

Nursing/Midwife Officer under goes four years training and is a degree holder

All these categories of nurses work together day and night as a team to save life and nurse the patient to gets well and go back home to his/her family

The salary of these nurses ranges from Ghc1000 - Ghc1500 - Ghc1700

With these salaries of the nurses stated above is what :

The nurse feeds the family and his/herself from
The nurse pays his/her transportation to work, buys lunch and drinking water at work from that salary

The nurse pays light and water bills and rent from that salary

The nurse pays his/herself and the family's hospital bills from that salary even when been treated at the same hospital where he/she works

The nurse pays children school fees from that salary

The nurse pays his/her school fees from that salary when he/she decides to upgrade.

The nurse sorely depends on that salary for everything that she has to do under

this sun
Hmmmm but who hears the cry of the nurse
The public is made to believe that nurses are rich they are paid bigger salaries

please judge for yourself are nurses really rich? Can these salaries really earn a living , most at times the salary finishes within the 1st -2nd week and one has to struggle to end the month

What the public don't know is that the social life of the nurse is completely shut down

No time to attend wedding , parties , funerals and other ceremonies of families and friends

The nurse hardly spend time with his/her family , he/she goes to work day and night, rain or shine , even on holidays and weekend ,

The nurse advocates for six months exclusive breastfeeding

But the nurse resumes work after three months maternity leave and she have to leave her three months old baby with her mother if she is around, if not the baby can be left with a househelp , a baby sitter , neighbour or have to be taken to school at that age. At this point that is when the nurse really regret for ever being in this profession.

It is soo sad and heart breaking when the nurse have to leave that innocent baby to whoever and go to work

The children of the nurse suffers a penalty, some becomes malnourished and easily falls sick , mother and child attachment is reduced

Yet who hears the cry of the nurse
The nurse is supposed to work for six hours for morning and afternoon shift and twelve hours for the night shift but it's not as calculated. The nurse leaves home in the morning for the morning shift and by the time he /she ends the shift and handover to the afternoon nurse then get back home it's already late in the evening .The afternoon nurse gets back home late at night,sometimes being attacked by thieves and faces unfortunate situations.

The nurse faces serious marital problems because she hardly get time for the family and yet she comes home with nothing.

The spouse of the nurse sometimes do regret for marrying a nurse and that disturbs the peace of the home

who hears the cry of the nurse
The public don't know that the nurse have to take loan before he/she can rent rent an apartment.

The nurse have to take loan to further his /her education.

The nurse have to take loan to buy a piece of land.

The nurse have to take loan to buy a car
The nurse have to take loan to pay children school fees

So the nurse is always living with debt
Bankers can testify to the fact that nurses are their regular customers because they always take loan from them.

Who hears the cry of the nurse
To be a nurse means you have to
kill your sight ( be blind )
kill your hearing ( be deaf )
kill your sense of smell
kill your feelings
And be very tactful in your speech
The nurse sees , smells and hears all sorts of disgusting things under this sun

The nurse serves bed pan to the patient to defecate into it and she Carry it to the toilet and discard

The nurse holds the urinal for the patient to urinate into it and she Carry it to the toilet and discard

The nurse holds the vomitos container for the patient to vomit and spit sputum ( flames) into it and she Carry it to the toilet and discard

The nurse cleans up both adults and young patient with his/her diaper full of faeces and urine

The nurse maintains personal hygiene of patient by bathing them and keep oral hygiene for them

The nurse maintains patients nutrition by feeding both unconscious and some conscious patients

The nurse dress the wounds of the patient, some of the wounds are soo big and smells very bad and offensive

Some of the wounds have maggot coming out from them

Some of wounds are such away that their families cannot even stand them but the nurse stand by them and dress them

The nurse nurses accidents victims with oozing blood without knowing their status

The midwife delivers babies and cleans up blood and faeces that came with the baby

Yet after seeing all these sights the nurse have to pretend he/she has seen nothing and sit by his/her food and enjoy it

The nurse sometimes is been pricked by used needles and blade and goes through a psychological trauma and infection.

Yet who hears the cry of the nurse
The nurse needs a peaceful mind in order to carry out his/her nursing duties effectively because human life is in their hands.

The doctor diagnose and prescribes medicine for the patient

But it is the nurse that goes for the medicine from the pharmacy

It is the nurse that gives the oral medication to the patient to drink

It is the nurse that mix the injection and injects the patient

It is the nurse that hydrates the patient with the infusion ( drip)

It is the nurse that transfuse the patient with the blood

It is the nurse that prepares the patient for surgery and nurses the patient after surgery till the is well

It is the nurse that nurses the dying patient to a peaceful death and prepares the body into the right position by closing the eyes and the month of the body, straighten the hands and legs of the body so that the body can be at right position when laid at state

The nurse stays with the patient 24hrs
patient depends on the nurse for everything.
Yet no one cares about the nurse
The nurse has become an enemy of the general public

The public says all sort of ill things about the nurse.

The public gives all sorts of names to the nurse for example " they are witches"

"they are thieves " " they are prostitutes " "they don't respect "and so on . How do you expect the nurse smile at you when he/she is working with an empty stomach without money to buy launch and also thinking about how to transport his/herself to work the next day. Nurses are really going through a lot but they don't have anybody to complain

The general public do not appreciate the work of the nurse and do not respect the nurse

Most of the time, the nurse is being insulted by some patients and their relatives

Yet who hears the cry of the nurse
As a nurse in this country Ghana there are alot of problems and challenges been faced as well as the little income

This is the true situation of the Ghanaian nurse
That is why most nurses have become traders at the hospital

That's why most nurses work till they go on pension but cannot afford a car

That's why most nurses go on pension but are still renting

That's why some nurses are frustrated and are not lovely and nice to the patient and their relatives and they branded "witches "

The nurse is motivated by nothing
The end of Year bonus given to the nurse is a 5kg of rice and 1 litre of oil

Some nurses work wholeheartedly for the sake and the fear of the God

When the nurse does her work well or extremely well nobody notices him/her but when a mistake is made by the nurse he/she is left alone to fight for him/herself and whole country turns against him /her. In fact nurses in our country Ghana feel maltreated like an orphan who has nobody to defend him/her or to show him/her love

please and please again let's hear the cry of the nurse

The nurse need to be happy and have a peaceful mind to work because one mistake of the nurse lives can be lost

The nurse is also human, she also wish patients and relatives that come to the hospital will also show her care , love and respect . But rather patients and relatives only cares about themselves alone , all they need is for the nurse to perform magic for them to get well.

sometimes the nurse you meet at the hospital is also not well but he/she has to be at work because of shortage of staff

please to the general public, the nurse needs your friendship and not an enemy

The nurse also needs you to show him/her care and love just as you need from him/her

To the NGO's please the nurse is also in need please hear the cry of the nurse

To the Ministry and the government please make life better for the nurse so he/she can have a peaceful mind and work wholeheartedly to save lives

To the media please be the mouth piece of the nurse let the cry of the nurse be heard by all .

God bless the nurse
By Zuweira Majeed
Concern Nurse