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Nurses' beatings are justified - Kambwili

Nurses' beatings are justified - Kambwili
By Sandra Lombe, Nomusa Michelo and Masuzyo Chakwe
Saturday September 15, 2007 [04:02]

The recent beatings of some nurses are justified, Roan Patriotic Front member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili has said. But Health Workers Union of Zambia (HWUZ) deputy general secretary Alfred Makani condemned the beatings and called for government intervention in the matter.

Meanwhile, Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) president Thom Yungana said people should understand that nurses work in very hostile environments.

Commenting on the recent incidents where nurses were beaten up in Lusaka and Mazabuka, Kambwili described some nurses' attitude towards patients as terrible.

"The attitude of nurses is terrible, they must change especially those in government. If they can't change they should be sent for retraining," Kambwili said.

He said nurses and medical officers should respect patients as they were an important aspect of their (health workers) lives.

"Some patients are sulky when sick, others are demanding. Nurses should understand and care for them. Nurses should treat patients like babies. That is why they are paid. When you compare UK and Zambia, patients in UK are considered important," he said.

Kambwili said there were a lot of delays in attending to patients and that at times some patients were clearly neglected.

He said there was need to employ more caregivers to help the nurses to look after patients. Kambwili complained that sometimes it took long to find bed spaces for patients in public health institutions.

"Some patients' actions (of beating up nurses) are justified. Look at UTH! To find a bed space it can take 24 hours, the speed of attending to patients is terrible," Kambwili said. "Even at clinics regardless of one being very sick or not, nurses should have the urgency to attend to people. We have lost a number of people due to delays."

And Kambwili said he had received a complaint of a nurse's alleged negligence, which allegedly caused the death of a miner's child in his constituency.

"The child had been electrocuted and taken to a clinic in my constituency but the nurse on duty told them to go to a mine clinic which is about 4.5 kilometres away. The child died upon reaching the clinic," Kambwili said. "I am trying to follow up the issue but I am not receiving much co-operation. They should not say a child of a miner could only be attended to at mine health institutions."

Kambwili said health institutions should first attend to patients and look at money issues later.

But Mfuwe member of parliament Mwimba Malama condemned the beatings of nurses, saying they were working under difficult conditions and were not motivated. Malama said due to poor conditions of service, most people were frustrated.

"We are all frustrated. We don't even know where to point a finger. Everyone, even members of parliament are complaining, but to whom? Then who is running this country? We should start by admitting that we have failed," Malama said.

"It's a chain of wrong things in the country. It's the wrong system that has gone to sleep. Till we start accepting that we are wrong, that's when things will be fine."

And Makani said the situation of beating up nurses was getting out of hand. However, Makani admitted that a few nurses were not professional in their work.

"Yes, there are one or two bad eggs, but we should not put a blanket statement that all nurses are bad. Most of them are very hard-working, they just need to be motivated," he said.

Makani said health workers were overstretched and it was unfair for them to be expected to work 24 hours a day and not to be tired.

"We need to solve this problem once and for all. The only solution to the problem is to sit down with the government and find a way of sensitising the public," he said.

Makani said health workers in rural areas faced even more hardships because of low staffing levels.

Meanwhile, Yungana said it was not only about attitude of nurses because there were various factors that could lead to people venting their anger on the nurses.

"Our position still stands, we do not condone or support violence in any form. And one thing you should know is that of all the three cases that have been reported so far, from the preliminary investigations we have done so far, we are yet to establish a case of negligence. It's not a question of attitude, there is a procedure that a person has to follow when they take a patient to the hospital.

The nurse has a part to play while other people like the doctor will also have his part to play," Yungana said. "And if a nurse tells a patient to wait in the line because the doctor is attending to someone else, it doesn't mean that they don't want to attend to you."

Yungana said presently, ZUNO was training nurses in Southern Province on attitude and ethics in professionalism. He said the public needed to be sensitised on the hostile environment nurses work in.

"There is a shortage of staff in these hospitals and the public is not aware of that. You can't expect a nurse who was working the whole night to have the same energy in the morning. The Ministry of Health should clearly state what kind of environment we work in," he said.

However, Yungana said nurses should not use the poor working environment to mistreat patients.

"We are doing our best to ensure that issues of attitude are tackled," said Yungana. More than a week ago, a Lusaka police officer is alleged to have severely beaten up two University Teaching Hospital (UTH) nurses after the child he had taken to hospital died.

Another nurse at Lusaka's Mtendere Clinic is alleged to have been beaten up by a woman last Tuesday after she suggested that the patient be taken to another clinic due to lack of electricity at Mtendere clinic.

Another nurse is also alleged to have been beaten up by a man at Chikombola clinic in Mazabuka for delaying to treat his sick child.

Labels: NURSES

posted by MrK @ 3:24 AM