The Ghanaian Nurse

Nursing is a call (vocation) to serve. It is an art of utilizing the environment of a patient, so as to assist him in his recovery. This includes care of the whole patient -his mind and body, the care of the patient's environment and to provide health education and other health services to the individual, family and society for the prevention of disease and promotion of good health.

The International Council of Nurses(I.C.N) defined nursing as "the unique function of the nurse, that is to assist the individual (sick or well) in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery that he could perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge". "Service" to the mankind is the primary function of the nurses and the reason for the existence of nursing profession.

To be a nurse is like being a mother; like a nursing mother who loves, cares and protects her baby from injury and sickness, like the hen that shields its chicks from their predators, the Ghanaian nurse in the hospital protects his or her patient/client from our greatest enemy-death, by rendering the best of basic nursing care within their means to bring back life to dying souls. The Ghanaian nurse rehabilitate and restore normal function to patients who have either been physically or psychologically incapacitated to reintegrate them into the society. If one's death is destined, the nurse nurses him to a peaceful death(dying without pain or distress). I once withnessed an old man in his late 80's who in the process of dying was smiling at the nurses because of the good nursing care the nurses rendered to him. The nurse receive the sick and the wounded with open arms, sooth their pain, comfort them and nurse them back to life.

Nurses in Ghana love their profession no matter the odds, they make effort to put aside the frustrations they encounter as nurses and perform perfectly for the sake of mankind. Such are epitomised characteristics of the good nurses in Ghana who are always working around the clock to save life.

On the other side of the coin, are the few bad ones. Those who are constantly dragging the image of the profession into the mud, as the saying goes; in every house there is "Mensah", they are those who fell into the profession by accident and some too by the "stepping stone phenomema" They roar at the sick at the least provocation as if they have land dispute problems with them. They either do not understand the nurses' pledge or attach any significance to it which states in stanza three " I promise to respect at all times the dignity of the patient in my charge".

The Ghanaian nurse since time immemorial have worked. tremendously for the sake of mankind. Their work deserve better remuneration, better condition of service, respect and publicity. When their two sisters in the health sector embarked on strike demanding what others described as "avaricious demand", the Ghanaian nurse for the sake of mankind was in the ward attending to that unconscious patient who have soiled himself from head to toe with vomitus, urine and faecal matter, dressing that stinky gangrenous wound, carrying bedpan and what have you. Those in the psychiatric wards are sometimes physically attacked by restless, anxious and deluded patients. Some staffs have lost their eyes, teeth, others with broken limbs some of which eventually led to their deaths, without any insurance cover nor “risk allowance”. As for the rotation nurses, the little you talk of them the better. Ghanaian nurses need a sturdy associatin with leaders who can always mount the negotiation table and hold the bull by the horns for the betterment of their condition of service.

May God bless the hand that cares for the sick. Ghanaian nurses, AYEKOO, your reward is in heaven.

By: Ali Mohammed(Chibaro Ali), a staff nurse at Ankaful Psyciatric Hospital.

Email: chibaroali@gmail.com.

Facebook: Chibaro Ali.

Mob: 0242122597