EDWARD Murenzi, 31, went to see a doctor when his leg developed a painful swelling. When he reached the hospital, which he refused to disclose, there was a queue of people standing waiting to see the doctor as the waiting area was already filled up.Since he could hardly stand and was in unbearable pain, he asked a nurse to help him get a seat while he waits for the doctor to attend to him. The nurse answered, rather curtly; “You think you are sicker than the rest who are standing? Do you want all of them to tell you the diseases they are suffering from? Your sickness isn’t any special.”Murenzi’s laborious attempts to explain his predicament yielded no sympathy on behalf of the nurse.He then approached the doctor who was kind enough to help him get a wheelchair while waiting for treatment.Murenzi is one of the many people who have raised concern about the issue of poor reception and customer care given by nurses in health facilities.Sister Mary Murebwayire, Head of Nursing in the Ministry of Health, noted that there was a topic on customer care in the nurses’ curriculum.“Our nurses are trained on how to offer proper customer care and ethics. They are some of the values we embed in our nurses while training them and expect them to implement them in their services,” she said.Murebwayire stated that nurses are actually supervised by Heads of Nursing at departmental or hospital level to ensure that they implement good services. She however noted that cases of poor customer care had dropped tremendously.“There are professional Medical bodies that are responsible for punishing malpractices committed by Nurses and other Medics,” she added.Another, Adelaide Uwera, noted that sometimes poor customer care is due to the fact that there is shortage of medics.She gave an example of CHUK Hospital where there are many patients and the number of nurses attending to them relatively few compared to the patients.In the end nurses end up being rude because they get stressed up by the huge number of people who all need their attention.In a recent interview with Dr Jean Nyirinkwaya, the CEO of Hopital La Croix Du Sud, said medics should indeed improve service delivery but even those who receive it should be trained.“Some of the patients and other people received at health facilities are also rude to the nurses, which might even provoke them to panic or deliver services poorly.Well, Medics are supposed to offer good customer care at all times but let’s remember that they are also human and can err, especially when provoked,” he said.Another issue that was recently raised is that the country has over 11,000 nurses and only one Registration Officer who is supposed to take them through the vetting procedure as revealed by J.Bosco Munyandinda, the Finance and Administration Manager National Council of Nurses and Midwives (NCNM).The whole of the National Council of Nurses and Midwives (NCNM) has only five staff (professional) members and two support staff. The Nursing council was established in 2008.Murebwayire noted that indeed that council needs experts in human resource and other professionals, adding that the ministry was supporting the council both technically and financially and would ensure that the challenges are overcome.In Rwanda, there are 77 Nurses per 100,000 people but the target is 100 Nurses per 100,000 people.
