It’s quite funny right? How will my patient be my boss? You ask. Well, maybe not that literally but something much related. I think there is more to providing quality care than the present practice of a god-like healthcare Practitioner caring for a helpless, hopeless patient. Especially In this part of the world, patients are directly or indirectly seen as one who is expected to pay full allegiance and loyalty to those caring for them. In short, they unconsciously believe and behave like they only live at the mercy of the health care providers. This is not just a sign of a completely underdeveloped health system, it also accounts for the large percentage of mortality resulting from various illnesses in and outside the hospitals.
Today, hospitals are now centers for acquiring illness, medical wards are now pro-mortuary, labor rooms becoming the path to the great beyond, infection becoming a normal flora on post-operative patients and bed ridden patient on wards develop pressure sores under the supposed watch of the Nurses. Are these supposed to be the norm? Even though helping a patient die a peaceful death is part of the scope of our care, does that excuse the place of doing the right thing even when the prognosis signals eventual death? Remember, it is meant to be a peaceful and not a painful death.
Many Nurses have failed in their responsibility towards their patient/client and are never queried for it. They act under the guise of seemingly supporting the weak individual seeking for care and at the same time play on their ignorance. That’s the word, Ignorance! The level of Ignorance in the patients has supposedly led to this devastating state in our health care system. Ideally, every patient who is to be managed of a disease condition is expected to know everything about it. They can only know their right when they know what is right. In fact, the very line of management of that disease condition ought to be stated clear either to the patient or the available relatives. The place of educating the patient on the disease condition which is now completely neglected is actually central to providing any form of care and not only to attaining consent from them. Not doing this alone should be a grave offence.
However, this epileptic kind of nursing practice has persisted because there is no viable room for prosecution of Nurses for incompetence and negligence of duty. For many reasons as well, the patients also have been conditioned to only hope for the day of slight recovery and then they cry out for a discharge else they DAMA. Regardless of how the care went on, when it all turns out negative, they accept fate and choose to live life on praying that God gives them the fortitude to bear the loss rather than fighting for what is past, what a pity! This mindset though seemingly good has led to the cyclic death pattern in the hospitals (both in private and public practice).
As much as we can talk about this problem, it is never going to get it solved. We are the hope of the future healthcare in Nigeria and we must arise with a new vision and mission to save our generation and that to come. Let’s bring health back into our hospitals and keep the hope of our patients alive. We can commit ourselves to changing the face of health care practice on the wards, in the community or wherever we find ourselves by doing what is right at the very right time. YES WE CAN!
The Ideal Nurses 