Nurses in Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye hospitals: Why are some so abusive?

Introduction

It is common knowledge that nurses in our hospitals work under very difficult circumstances and receive very little remuneration for their hard work. They often deal with very extreme cases with very little support from their management. Some of these nurses are in fact angels who will go to any length to support patients. Some even settle medical bills for poor and needy patients.

This notwithstanding this noble profession is being put into disrepute by some few bad elements in the profession. The Nurses and Midwives Council of Ghana (NMC) need to start cracking its whip to safe the sinking image of the profession. The NMC just like all other regulating bodies has its code of ethics which governs the conducts of its members but it seems these codes and ethics are just worth the paper on which it has been written.

The conduct of some nurses

The conducts of some of the nurses in the public hospitals are so awful and one wonders why the NMC still keep them on their register (i.e. if they even have one). Patients’ rights are trampled upon with ease and are treated with so much indignity. Some of theses nurses for whatever reason have developed razor tongues which they are good at using to slice patients into shreds. Their mastery use of foul languages will make you wonder if that is part of the modules they take at the nursing training colleges.

Apart from the above they also exhibit violent and aggressive behaviour towards patients to compensate for their frustrations. They are so unfriendly and have no empathy for sick and vulnerable people. Attributes which are required for the profession.

The health system

The overcrowding in our hospitals coupled with bad management of our health system has resulted in family members spending nights at hospitals grounds attending to their sick relatives. Some of the nurses on night duties will rather sleep leaving family members who are not professionals to deal with some delicate situations. These family members usually set up camps in the hospitals and remain there till their relations are discharged. Though they contribute positively to the health care system their efforts are not appreciated. They become easy targets for the predator nurses who bully them on the least provocation. Spending nights on hospital grounds is already a nightmare for these families. Their livelihoods have been disrupted by an illness of perhaps a bread winner of the family. On top of that they have to leave the comfort of their homes to cope with unhygienic conditions in the hospital yards. Some of them prepare meals in the open to feed themselves as well as their sick ones. Are patients not supposed to be on special diets?

Visitors of patients on admission are not spared the agony of the foul – mouthed rant of the nurses either. They (nurses) take the slightest opportunity to vent their frustration on these unsuspecting visitors. Most often these visitors are usually caught between a hard rock and the deep blue sea. A response to any verbal assault from these misfits could jeopardise the lives of their loved ones so they suffer their humiliation in silence.

The pains of childbirth

The razor tongued nurses don’t spare our pregnant mothers either. Mothers are often battered by the fiery tempered nurses to pops. Child birth is a very traumatic experience for women and it could result in post natal depression for some women. The process of labour and delivery could be stressful, tiring and life treating. Due to this in the UK for instance the NHS have child delivery options such as epidural where pregnant women are given injection to reduce the pains. There is also the water birth option which also reduces the pains to some extent in spite of the risk involve.

The greatest and the most natural way of them all is the NHS policy which allows would-be fathers to be with their loved ones during delivery. While the mothers are going through this critical moment the fathers will be by their side caressing their hands gently and whispering tender words into their ears. Words of encouragement that is so soothing to the soul. The midwives on duty respect the rights of mothers and behave professionally. The situation is different in the delivery wards in Korle Bu or Komfo Anokye and other regional hospitals. While mothers go through these traumatic moments the nurses add to their pains by heaping insult on their poor heads. They often scream at them, mock them and crack unnecessary jokes about their sex lives. Some of the motor mouth nurses go to the extent of reminding the unfortunate mothers of the sense in spreading their thighs apart for worthless men. Would-be fathers are barred from the precincts of delivery wards till the delivery is over.

The sad thing is that despite public outcry and several discussions on this menace on the radio stations these motor mouth nurses are still at post and the NMC look on unconcerned.

Bellicose politicians

Well, while the hospitals are overcrowded and patients sleep on bare floors and bullied. While our loved ones go to their graves in their prime because of lack of medical care our bellicose politicians live in opulence and shamelessly flaunt their ill gotten wealth publicly. Their families attend posh clinics paid for by the tax payer.

While our mothers sleep in the open corridors of Korle Bu our members of parliament (MPs) want new cars. While our children study under mango and baobab trees and sleep in windowless mud houses with thatched roofing, we build Taj Mahas (presidential palaces) and spent billions of cedis furnishing houses for politicians. While a small city like Accra cannot have constant supply of water or power they go about chanting empty slogans. We are moving forward. Their version of moving forward is constructing one road here and another intersection there etc. Have these people not seen roads before? Well have they heard of M1, M4, M6, M62 or A1 motorways in the UK? Do they know the number of interchanges and bypasses on the M1 alone? Do they know about the great Osagyefo, the ‘show boy’ who never dies? A Great visionary who constructed the only motorway in the country?

Conclusion

The nurses must understand they are not the only workers at the receiving end of a very frustrating system. The teachers, police, soldiers etc suffer the same fate but the teachers don’t go about flogging our children till they fall dead neither do the ‘Koti’ go about gunning down people because they wield AK 47. The Ministry of Health must ban the use of foul language by nurses in our hospital just like the Ghana Education Service (GES) succeeded in banning lashing in our schools.

Francis Kwaku Egu, UK