A CALL ON OUR LEADERS IN NURSING by Olabanji Joel

Post basic nursing programme in anesthesia in Lagos state, I just saw this and was surprised. It is a good thing for those interested, I just hope they will be able to practice effectively after being trained because we have allowed Doctors to take over everything and many times we get pushed to the back even in things we have been trained for. 


Imagine having this kind of course and several others at a post graduate level, the prestige it will bring upon the profession, the boldness and high self esteem it will give to all the specialist nurses.

Imagine someone saying I have a diploma in anesthetic nursing and another saying I have a masters in anesthetic nursing. Imagine saying I have HND in Nursing and another saying I have BNSc.

I just hope our leaders can think so much about the effect of their actions on the profession and the professionals. I hope we will get it right someday because nursing practice in Nigeria brings down self esteem of many of us which is the direct impact of the devaluation faced by the profession.

Many nurses have lost their confidence doing some things today not because they don't know it but because they don't get the chance to doing these things and learn more while doing it. It is not who they are but they have been made to be like that by the profession, they have become unknowingly timd with low confidence in self due to long lasting timidity in disguise as humility and non practice of the skills they were taught.

I await the time when nurses will stand against hospital policies that has made nurses lower cadre health workers, I await the era when nurses in Nigeria will start doing things we have been trained to do, I hope the time will come when nursing in Nigeria will return back to being a profession and not what it has been turned to now. I HOPE THE TIME WILL COME SOON.

By

Olabanji Joel

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