A Suggestion. Don't forget to read Comments. You may have missed some "good ones" some time last week —or even earlier.
Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in Fiji. I thank Allen for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.
Empowering Our Nurses
It was reported (FT 21/4) ‘unfit’ nurses were required to undergo diet and training programs. Public health workers were required to undergo compulsory medical screening when renewing their contracts. And those who were obese, suffer from risks of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and cancer would be required to adopt the diet and training programmes offered by the Ministry of Health. It was also reported by the Fiji Nursing Association that 50% of deaths amongst nurses were from work- related stress. Now we read (FT 26/7) nurses will be audited to ensure they meet the competency lever required by the Ministry of Health. It will be an annual event. This is good. Most nurses already work under stress, how many of them live with abusive husbands. I the recent past many of our nurses left for overseas because they were offered better deals. Now that we are asking our nurses (whose job is always taken for granted) could we pay them a little bit better, became they can almost do what a doctor can do. Or am I wrong?
With the new Health administration, I know our nurses will be getting a better deal. Here is a suggestion: We have a shortage of doctors. Could our nurses who have served more than nine to ten years sit an exam to qualify them to administer some of the work now left only for doctors to do? The nurses work right beside a doctor and must have learnt much from their observation and participation. Often nurses have to wait for a doctor when a patient or victim is under severe stress because her code of ethics prevents her from doing what she already knows the doctor would do. Let's open up our nursing system a little more to assist where they do not have to wait for a doctor.
I know Florence Nightingale would agree with me and so would the hundreds of people who wait for hours at the GOPD and special clinics because the doctor has not arrived, or had to pull a 24 hour shift. Doctors are human beings also and I’m sure they can do with a little assistance.
By the way, could the whole of the Civil Service be tested for competency every 12 months, for obvious reasons and also undergo the health regime the nurses undergo? Why only nurses eh!
1 comment:
There are of course Florence Nightingales in Fiji and there always have been. However, it is disturbing to hear increasingly that nurses are forgetting that they are paid by the taxation of their patients.
Why is it so difficult for them to see that the patients they are paid to care for, to treat with appropriate courtesy and patience, yes, patience at all times, actually are the providers of their pay?
The frequent complaints of harsh and callous conduct in hospitals around Fiji suggest that many nurses have 'forgotten themselves' and why they were trained. Many nureses around the world work for free in some of the most trying locations imaginable like Darfur and sub-Saharan Africa. They are proud to do this as witness to their noble calling and their competence. Nurses will be accorded the respect that they merit.
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