Nurses urged to give profession good image

Nurses have been tasked to go beyond kindness to patients and work together at the bedside to ensure that patients are nursed back to health or have a peaceful transition.

To survive and actually thrive in nursing, nurses would have to pull together as a profession and begin by working together at the bedside and become great team players willing to support each other.

Speaking at the 13th Biennial General Meeting and 35th Council Meeting of the West African College of Nursing (WACN), Dr Jemina Dennis-Antwi, President of the Ghana College, said nursing and midwifery require their practitioners to exhibit high levels of commitment and nurturing in providing care to the healthy, ill individuals, groups and communities.

The meeting was on the theme: "Profession versus Professionalism: Opportunities and Challenges."

The four day conference would discuss current trends in nursing and midwifery and implication for care; ethical implications in professional development of nurses and midwives; politics in nursing and midwifery education practices; issues and implication and the Ebola Viral Disease; experimental issues from Sierra Leone and Liberia.

A total of 171 fellows from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Benin, and the Gambia were inducted into the College to help improve healthcare in their respective countries.

Dr Dennis-Antwi said a profession is a chosen, paid occupation, requiring prolonged training and formal qualification, giving professionals the opportunity to show competent and skillful behaviour in conformity with their profession.

“Being professional then, is an act of behaving in a mode defined and expected by the chosen profession,” she said.

She said professionalism was an added value that promotes the quality care and the contribution of practitioners as well a set of values owned and understood by all.

In a speech read for the Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefiah, by his Deputy, Dr Victor Bampoe, asked the WACN to redeem the negative image of the profession.

He said nurses had contributed immensely to the development of the nation, especially the roles they played in curbing the Ebola outbreak in some countries, but noted that, the unprofessional conduct by a few tend to mar the image of the profession.

Mrs Amelia Eva Gabba, President of WACN said nursing had come a long way in the 148 years since Florence Nightingale established it, adding that, her greatest legacy to the nursing profession was the fact that she elevated it to a higher degree of professionalism and respectability.

For that reason, she said professional nurses are expected to demonstrate a certain degree of altruism, special attainment, self-sacrifice and the right attitude in their dealings, and that, “Each nurse needs to understand the responsibilities and concerns that are integral to the profession

The College she said, stood for excellence to promote standards in nursing and midwifery education and practice in the Sub region and will continue to provide leadership and strategic directions to nursing and midwives in the region and also ensure that, quality nursing and midwifery services are being provided to people who need it.

Former First lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, said a nursing career can last for about 40 years but the number of lives touched is what really matters and advised nurses to make an impact on humanity.

She said the challenges confronting them were enormous which needs serious attention and urged them to strive to give the profession a good name.