Acting Principal of the Bolgatanga Midwifery college in the Upper East Region, Mrs Amaliba Christian has bemoaned the worrying attitude of some nurses and midwives towards the profession.
She said today’s nurses and midwives are more interested in job security rather than passion for the care and treatment of people.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper East Show, Mrs Amaliba worried that the recent change in attitude amongst the health professionals needs to change as it affects the practice.
“These students are coming here because of job security – to get employed at the end of the day and not because they have the passion for it. And that’s why we have these problems in the various wards in our hospitals. For instance, if you have a passion for something, you will put your all into it. Sometimes, you will enter the ward and see nurses or midwives busy with their phones and other stuff without concentrating on the patient(s).”
“Nursing goes alongside skills, knowledge and attitude. So, if you combine these three you will get nurses who will come out well cooked. One of the things that we are thinking about now is because of societal issues, the young ones have their way of doing things so it behoves us as parents and teachers and even the senior nurses to come together to be able to make some corrections and adapt to the new lifestyle and try to see how we can model them to fit, otherwise the stories will continue.”
Touching on some of the dimensions of modification, the Principal explained that discipline was key to becoming a professional nurse or midwife.
She said, “you know, discipline is number one and so if the students are not disciplined it will go onto these stories that we are talking about. Nurses have learned to use their phones in the wards; those days that was unacceptable, so it is very worrying.”
“We need to talk about it and I think that the policymakers should also come into and encourage these students to be disciplined. When they are disciplined for wrongdoing I mean they should support us to correct them because some of the students have been left on for a long time. So, if we all come together and collaborate as one, we will be able to help and bring the system back to how it used to be and that’s our target.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
