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Over the years, we have heard nurses crying out about their working conditions and the way in which they are treated. Yes, we choose our profession. We love our profession, but this profession is draining us. The sisters who think that hospital coverage is management, yet they themselves can’t do the work. For e.g, if a sister comes and takes over a ward, they would call the admin office to tell them to send help. Their belt is black. Mine is blue, yet you expect me to manage a ward alone as a Staff Nurse, but you can’t. Many of these sisters forget that they were once staff nurses. Meet your staff halfway. Understand that they are humans and therefore have a family who also needs them at home. Stop acting like the color of your belt gives you the superpower to bully, control, demand, or look down on anyone. Show some empathy.
There are many issues that we as nurses are facing, and as my grandmother would say “only those in the kitchen will feel the true heat”. We as nurses work 36+ hours per week because we work hours beyond our shift, which we aren’t paid for. We are not paid for holidays or weekends, either. When we work a holiday we as nurses are expected to receive an extra day and that is rarely so but if we do get the extra day the sisters would give us without even asking if we need it.
Now there’s a request book that nurses usually put in their upcoming request before the duty is set, yet the supervisors would tell you that the request book is for emergencies, like hell can I see the emergency that is going to happen next week, am I supposed to request the day off next week for unforeseen emergency? We are entitled to our weekend off yet months would go by before we can get a weekend off, now tell me how can I be working Friday night and going home Saturday morning all after 8 count as me being on weekend when the Sunday is counted as your first day off for the upcoming work week or working Friday night, go home Saturday morning and resume work on Sunday 7am-1pm. There are many supervisors who would sit in their offices and do nothing for the entire shift. Now you tell me why it would take a supervisor 6 hrs to set a duty. It’s not even that setting the duty would be their excuse for not being active on the ward.
Sometimes, they come to the ward and decide they are going to clean and organize the office for the shift. Management is so concerned about nurses’ personal business that they can’t see that. At night there would be one nurse and a nursing assistant running a ward with 30+ patients. You wear a scrub, they’re making it an issue. At least the nurse showed up. He/she could have stayed home. They’re more concerned about your eyelashes, hair, caps, nails which aren’t even long or colored and your uniform yet they can’t even see that they are making the nurses uncomfortable because every time you go to work is another issue. The four uniforms they give every how many years isn’t cutting it. Every Monday morning the heads having meeting yet no changes are made so what’s the point?
They need to look at the piece of things they have that they call beds, the pot holes and moles in the roof that are located on the wards, the chairs that nurses have to rest on whenever they get a small chance to, the fact that some ward have no fan and it’s very hot most times which is uncomfortable, the limited resources that nurses have to work with yet they expect you to perform miracles, and by the time you get some them ain’t good because they have them so long store up in the hot containers.
The fact that nurses would come to work and have nowhere to park, yet there are parking spots reserved for nursing managers even when they are not on duty,nurses are told they can’t park there. Look at the fact that by the side where Daddy Shop was formally is now being turned into something that would benefit the nurses like a parking space.
Let’s talk about the fact that nurses are entitled to a certain number of sick days, and when they go on sick-leave it’s a problem. Instead of calling the nurse and wishing them a speedy recovery, they sit down and talk to the nurse. We are also entitled to our vacation days, yet when it’s time for us to take them, they are telling us how much we can take and when we can take them. Minister of health, please shake up this healthcare system, let those who done do their time go home, give the young minds a chance. Stop blocking the growth. Make it that nurses are compensated for the work they do, and let the ward managers play an active role in patient care.
They’re not there to evaluate the staff only, and I believe that the staff should be available to evaluate their supervisors as well. Nursing managers, please do better, or a time would come when you would see that office marked nursing administration and can’t go there because you would have to charge the wards alone.
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