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Nurses: Do not ditch Florence Nightingale
2008-05-12 09:22:29
By Editor
Today, Tanzanian nurses join their global fraternity in marking the International Nursing Day, which also serves as a celebration of the birthday of the founder of the nursing profession as we know it today—Florence Nightingale, who transformed nursing from being a low grade unskilled labour into a trained and respected profession.
It is said that the suffering of the sick that Florence Nightingale saw aroused her interest in nursing. She is quoted as saying: ``The first requirement in a hospital is that it should do no harm to the sick.``
It goes without saying that as nurses mark this day, they are in fact professing their commitment to prevent diseases and save lives.
Theirs is a noble profession that is a service to mankind of supporting those in need and giving care to others.
This is the spirit of their profession.The question that should be asked today is whether our medics are committed to their profession as Florence Nightingale—the one who held the lamp—was.
We say this because there are increasing signs that some growing numbers of nurses have ditched Florence Nightingale as their role model by behaving contrary to her spirit.
It is understandable that difficult economic realities, poor working conditions and extremely low pay are factors that discourage our nurses, such that many of them are neglecting their duties.
By saying so, we do not intend to pass a blanket judgement on all nurses because so many of them are still committed to their work in spite of the very difficult environment that they are working in. These should by all accounts be congratulated.
On the other hand, we wish to caution that a bad tendency is slowly creeping into this noble profession as some medics who cannot bear to face the realities of difficulties of life and meagre pay, pass the buck to their patients, some of whom are literary knocking on death`s door.
Whatever problems one might have, these do not justify cruel behaviour of those who are supposed to behave otherwise, and on whom hapless patients bank on at critical hour.
There are increased reports that some nurses, especially those in government hospitals—which apparently pay less than private hospitals—have taken to mistreat the sick and gone to the extent of exchanging their services for bribes.
They have to be reminded of Florence Nightingale`s statement, that the first requirement in a hospital is that it should do no harm to the sick.
In fact, the hospital is the final refuge for each one of us—including the medics—when our bodies eventually succumb to disease, and while there, what we all expect is to be cared for well until the very end.
We hope that the organizers of this year`s International Nursing Day celebrations will take into account the fact that some of their colleagues are working day and night to exorcise the myth of Florence Nightingale.
They need to encourage those succumbing to temptation and despair by reminding them about the nobility of their profession and the suffering experienced by Florence Nightingale in the execution of her nursing duties.
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