Nurses, uplift your quality of service

Editor, Recently, I escorted my friend to a Health Centre in Nyagatare. He had broken his left leg and had severe facial wounds following a road accident. On arrival at the health centre, the nurses told us that the patient was in a critical condition and needed further examination and screening that was only available at the district hospital. Soon we were transferred to Nyagatare hospital, emergency department. We found two nurses who rudely and impolitely told us to wait by the door of the minor surgical ward. We waited for almost half an hour without any nurse or doctor’s intervention. Remember, my friend has a broken leg and was bleeding. Later, a doctor came and examined the patient before he prescribed medication, ordered for a leg splint, stitching material for the deep facial wounds and directed for an X-ray on the broken leg. As the patient’s attendant, I went and brought all the prescribed drugs and other necessary equipments from the pharmacy for stitching. I was not satisfied by the way the nurses cared for my friend even after bringing everything as the doctor had ordered. I waited for more than 30 minutes for the nurses to come, I continuously called them informing them that I had brought the drugs but they ignored me and did not respond yet they were just seated, gossiping and laughing. Honestly, a professional nurse is someone who is polite, kind and loving. Nurses should have good communication skills and have both sympathy and empathy towards patients. This is what they are trained to do in order to facilitate easy recovery and create a good therapeutic environment. I later confided in Eric a friend of mine and a student at Nyagatare School of Nursing and Midwifery. He told me that such nurses and other health care providers have been reported several times. He however acknowledged that there are professional nurses who follow nursing ethics, principles and codes of conduct and do their work perfectly. If this is true, and not all nurses are like those at the Nyagatare Health Centre, then I remain hopeful. I strongly condemnthese nurses whiose ethics fall short of our expectations. Alex K. Mucyo Nyagatare Katax2020@yahoo.com

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Nurses, uplift your quality of service