Social Injustice on Nursing Practice in Nigeria: A Call for Systematic Evaluation - Isikadi Precious

The quality of the nursing profession has been stepped upon, the values of nursing has been put into questioning, I won’t forget those day’s when we were applying to study nursing science, the joy was indeed enormous, when we got admitted into the university to study nursing, friends could ask you what course are you studying? You would say it without hesitation, nursing science; Relations would ask you what course are you studying? You would say it proudly, I am studying nursing science, these are all because of the prestige, the values, the reputation, and respect that is attached to anyone that is either going to study nursing or who is already a nurse.

The society carry nurses with high esteem, parents also gives respect and value their children who is a nurse or in the university studying nursing,  your friends also will respect and carry you differently because it is believed that nurses has a strong code of conducts and are of  a good behavior.

But what now has been the future of this great and noble profession called nursing? In Nigeria; We now see cases where patient relatives physically abuse nurses, The society no longer value nurses that spent so many years in school just to be educated, licensed and to serve them with humility, Doctors now physically abuse nurses and even student nurses who they ought to work together with as team to ensure the full recovery of patients, Just as it happened recently at Delta State University Teaching Hospital  where a Doctor physically pushed a student nurse out of the ward and slammed the door against his leg leading to bruises and pain and deprived the nurse of his clinical posting, the said student nurse has not been the only victim of this abuse but this doctor following her derogatory behavior has also abused some other nurses.

Is this the foundation that was established by the founding mothers and fathers of nursing?

Let us then ask ourselves these questions, Is this what we want as nurses? Is this what we get after spending 4-5 years of training just to serve humanity? We ought to be source of hopes to ailing ones and also the foundation for building a healthy world.

Let’s not forget that we are built on integrity and discipline, an integrity that ought to transcends to all generations. How then do we bring back our integrity and make the society see our values? It is high time we carry out community education to make the society see our values, to enlighten them about who we are and also for them to hold us as an answer to their health questions.

It is high time we use informational picketing to reach out to authorities and make them to see the challenges nurses are going through and dialogue with them on the way forward.

It is no longer a new thing in Nigeria where we see individuals being trained and employed (auxiliary nurses) by doctors just to let them render cheap services, thereby tarnishing the image of our noble and great profession nursing. Let us all come together and educate the public that there are people who are specially ordained for the profession, people that undergo training in a period of years in a recognized institution and then registered and licensed, and not just any individual who is trained for I week by a doctor or another unrecognized individual.

Let us also not fold our hands and watch these people tarnish the image of our profession.
Migrating to other countries is not the best solution to our problem, let us not forget that if these countries in which we migrate to where not wise enough to build their profession to a high standard and make it nice, wonderful and respected among other professions, then we can’t run there to practice.

So let everyone fully licensed and recognized as a nurse be a gatekeeper and do as expected of him or her professionally, coming together with one mind, with one spirit and with one goal to lift and to take nursing to higher places.

                       Isikadi Precious
              Website: www.isikadiprecious.com
       Email: preciouschrist206@gmail.com
Isikadi Precious is nurse and writer from Delta State University, Department of Nursing, he is a contributor at dailyhealthng, he writes health content for patient education and also he is one person who has interest in advocating for nurses.