One of the challenges Nurses in Nigeria are facing is issue of bullying the Junior Nurse, in the article you Will read on PROTECT MY IMAGE THE YOUNG NURSE CRIED
The young lad who had gone through school with great aspiration hoping to become a great nurse someday has just been employed in a clinical setting after his graduation. Let me tell you quickly about his experience. He had read Keith Moore anatomy textbook, vehemently finished physiology textbook, Harper biochemistry, sociology, law, foundation of nursing and all nursing courses and had immensely passed them tremendously.
Day and night he was in the classroom and library alternatively. Many times he would put his legs in water just not to sleep unaware because he wanted to come ought with good grades as a nurse and wanted to practice well in the future after his academic years.
He is now a graduate who has newly being employed to work under the supervision or headship of a female chief nursing officer (CNO) popularly known as a matron. From the beginning the CNO was great, friendly and expressed gratitude based on the fact that she had gotten a helper in the ward at least to reduce the workload as they say. This happiness continued the first one month not until a doctor came into the picture.
The young nurse had finished taking the morning vital signs and recorded in the system because the hospital was using an e-nursing process. He packed the monitor a machine used for checking or detecting vital signs and clean packed it in the proper place aware from the patients because it was a post natal ward which prevalent cases of eclampsia, pre-eclampsia, spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) etc.
The doctors and house officers came in early in the morning with their white lab coats and proud bouncing shoes into the ward for the ward round. Meanwhile this was about after 10am in the morning just few minutes after the young graduate nursing officer (NO I) instead of senior nursing officer (SNO) which would have been the proper placement had finished his vital signs. They came picked up the monitor for the vital signs again and after they were done using it they failed to return the monitor to the right place even though they had house officers.
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They left the monitor in the middle of the patients wrongly positioned. As the last person was about to leave who was a female house officer the young nurse graduate asked her to please return the monitor to its right position where they took it from before leaving before she could even say jack Robinson the CNO (matron) called him and told him to go and put in the right place the monitor.
And when he was just about to say something he was stopped by the matron and rather compelled to do what he was asked to do and the house officer walked away. He felt ashamed and bittered yet there was nothing he could do. Immediately the matron kept saying it is your responsibilities to ensure the safety of the monitor and not theirs, where the hell was this thought coming from? And when he tried explaining and educating the matron it became a problem.
The matron took it as if there was a rivalry between the graduate nurse and one who has finished school of nursing.
The image of this young nurse was tampered with in the sight of the doctors and the patients. His self esteem went low and to add salt to the injury the matron became a thorn in his flesh finding faults in almost everything he does and discussing him with other nurses making him look incompetent or stupid before others.
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The question I asked was how did we get here? She lost professional values and she must have misplaced her note for professional ethics and conduct.
Finally, as the condition became unbearable the young nurse left the hospital. Please lets always protect each other even in bad or good moments and situations as we practice the nursing profession.
DANLADI AMINU R.N, BNSc
