Ghanaian Nurses An Endangered Species
- May
- 27
2:31 am Live Crew, Live Theater
The Ghanaian nurse is like an endangered species bound for extinction.
Nurses in Ghana have so many ‘natural’ enemies to contend with and they do not seem to have the ability or the strength to fend these threats off.
Their numbers in the country is dwindling fast to the detriment of the overall health sector, and the poor and helpless Ghanaian patient, especially in these difficult times, when the global food crisis comes along with nutritional challenges and possible diseases that follow is likely to be at the losing end.
Nurses are contending with stifling regulations for academic progression.
For instance, any nurse who works at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, one of the nation’s leading teaching hospitals cannot study beyond the first Degree in nursing. Indeed, the processes involved in getting approval for study leave to attend any of the universities is too cumbersome and appears to be so designed to discourage nurses from pursuing further studies.
And if a nurse struggles through to complete the programme, he or she is pushed into the classroom to teach, even if the nurse graduate is willing and eager to serve on the wards.
I am aware of some nurses who have resigned from their positions to pursue further studies at the Bachelors Degree level because they were refused study leave even though, they asked to be granted without pay.
Worse still, no nurse at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital is allowed to pursue a Masters programme in nursing. I know a specific case where a young and passionate nurse after her Bachelors Degree did so well that the University offered her a place for the post-graduate programme in nursing. But when she requested for endorsement from the hospital to go and do the programme, she was told in plain language that Korle-bu does not need nurses with Masters Degrees and therefore, she should resign if she insists on pursuing the course! And resign she did!
Nurses also face the challenge of poor remuneration for the kind of work they do. The job of a nurse is both physically and emotionally demanding. The nurse is expected to share the emotional pain of the patient as well as his or her own emotional challenges, and these often leave the nurse drained.
But for all these, the nurse is not relevantly compensated. Reactions of nurses to poor remuneration are evident in the numerous regular industrial actions they embark on. It is also the reason why, most of them would leave our already depleted health system and their families to travel abroad for better paid nursing jobs, sometimes reluctantly.
Their migration to other lands further burdens the small number of nurses who have to struggle without adequate tools to nurse the growing number of patients in our overcrowded hospitals.
Housing is another challenge which Ghanaian nurses are confronted with. Nurses’ housing facilities in Ghana leaves much to be desired.
I dare any one who cares to take a tour of the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital Nurse’s Quarters for an inspection.
There are some exceptions for instance at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital. The Nurses’ accommodation at these hospitals, especially the new blocks are the best to happen to nurses’ housing in Ghana.
But not Korle-bu. Nurses occupy single rooms and share kitchen, toilet and bathroom facilities, most of which are in bad conditions. Most of the rooms in Korle-bu leak profusely, especially during this rainy season. Some nurses would have to put containers onto their beds in anticipation of coming rains before they leave for work.
The sewage system in Korle-bu has deteriorated in recent times, and it is not uncommon to see sewage seeping out of the ground and soaking the buildings with accompanying stench and discomfort. Estate officials, I have been informed are aware, but very little is being done about these. But if it had been other members of the health profession other than nurses, I am told, the problems would have been fixed with dispatch. Notwithstanding the fact that nurses pay rent which is deducted at source from their salaries.
As if all these are not enough, nurses have become targets for criminal elements right where they live.
Nurses everywhere by the nature of their job, have to work late into the night and also run shifts, and because most of them do not own cars and can hardly afford one on their meager salaries, and they can’t always afford to pick taxis home after work, they have become victims to ruthless bag snatchers and armed robbers.
Only last Saturday at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital Midwives Quarters, a midwife who had closed from work and was heading home was attacked by a teenager not too far away from her residence. This heartless criminal used a sharp object that could possibly be a machete or cutlass to butcher this helpless woman.
Even though, she shouted for help, help came too late and she has been wounded so severely. Both her hands have been slashed all over.
This incident immediately brings into sharp focus the poor security at the nurses’ residences. This is not an isolated incident though, but again it brings to the fore, the lack of interest of the authorities in the safety of nurses who live in the premises.
In Korle-bu for instance, there are about 1,200 nurses, of course they all don’t live in the Quarters, while other health care professionals including medical doctors make a total of about 350. But the medical doctors have a stronger representation and a much stronger influence on major decisions for staff welfare than the nurses who form the majority in the facility do.
Tags: anticipation, authorities, bachelors degree, day, degree level, detriment, difficult times, elements, endangered species, health sector, heart, korle bu teaching hospital, Live, masters degrees, natural enemies, nurses, nutritional challenges, plain language, post graduate, premise, remuneration, target, teaching hospitals, wardsRelated posts
