THE OLDER NURSES WOULD LEAVE IF THEY COULD

 TWW Gets a Chat With a Nurse

In a bid to bring our student and young professional audience closer to the labour world, we decided to add interviews to our features, starting with this first week in June. We were privileged to have an interview with a veteran nurse, and a mother, who took us on a wonderful journey and revealed interesting things about the health sector in Nigeria. Read on to hear from Nurse Nneka Okpala, as she answers questions on being a nurse, COVID-19, and nurse’s welfare in Nigeria

TWW: May we meet you, ma’am?

NNO: You are welcome. I am Mrs Nneka Okpala. I am a nurse by profession. I work at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, presently at the rank of PNO.

TWW: Can you tell us a bit about your career? We know you’ve been practicing for a very long time. Can you just share a bit on how the journey has been for you?

NNO: My journey in the nursing profession has been for over 20 years. I have been at my current place for over ten years. The journey hasn’t been an easy one, and there have been ups and downs, but the grace of God has kept me. I enjoy the work because it’s a call I accepted by His mercies, and I see the hand of God being with me in the profession. He has kept me despite all odds and I thank Him for his goodness and mercy.

TWW: That’s lovely. Now ma’am, you have a professional career that has spanned over 20 years. The nursing profession is reputed to be a very demanding one, how have you been able to combine and balance your nursing profession with family life? Has it been easy? How have you dealt with it?

NNO: It’s not easy, but there’s no important thing in life. The most important thing is planning. Once you plan your life; your day and the activities, things would appear easy because you have planned. That’s what has been helping me.

From the onset, when my children were young, planning helped me. I made sure I woke early, prepared their meals for the day, before I would go to work so that at work, I would have peace of mind, because the home is settled. So, planning helps me a lot, by the grace of God.

TWW: That’s quite insightful. So, Nigeria and the rest of the world is only just coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut the world down for months on end, and brought life as we knew it, to a standstill. Nigeria is among the countries that had cases in its tens of thousands. We would like to know first if your hospital was a centre for diagnosing and treating COVID-19 cases.

NNO: Yes, it was one.

TWW: How did you cope with it? How was the experience as a frontline health worker?

NNO: It wasn’t funny, but I was somewhat lucky, because my annual leave came when the pandemic was at its peak, so I didn’t really feel it. When I resumed work though, I heard that the experience wasn’t a funny one. A lot of staff came down with the virus, and those that were not infected did not find it easy working with little manpower. It wasn’t funny at all.

TWW: How about the casualty figures? Were they higher than the national average or was it lower?

NNO: Yes, there were a lot of deaths. The figures were quite high. You know, the COVID-19 came in stages. Initially, at the first stage or wave, the people were recovering, but the second stage had a lot of casualties. Patients were being treated, but they didn’t recover.

The last wave was terrible; the Omicron virus was the worst. It had so many casualties. People died without exhibiting the symptoms while they were being treated. It doesn’t even give them time, it just comes acutely and suddenly, the patient is dead.

TWW: Wow! Now would you say we are now free from the pandemic, especially on the Jos plateau? Most people and organisations have let down their guard, it’s almost like only banks and hospitals still attempt some form of safety measures. Other public gatherings shun the basic safety measures. So are we safe now, or should we dread a return of the virus?

NNO: Nigerians are lucky in this aspect. For the past two months, April and May, there has been no record of new cases, so I can say we are free, but that doesn’t mean that we should completely abandon the safety measures. There are other communicable diseases that the precautionary measures we took for COVID can help control, so I still recommend that we use them.

In public gatherings like churches, the use of face mask etc. is not really necessary, but people with communicable diseases should still distance themselves from others to avoid spreading the disease they carry. Other measures like washing your hands regularly; coughing properly etc. should also be maintained.

TWW: Thank you very much, ma’am. Now, we would like to ask about domestic violence. It has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. Would you say at your hospital, there has been an increase in treating victims who have suffered domestic violence, corresponding with the increasing number of cases being reported or has it stayed the same?

NNO: For now, it has not really increased. Assaults are being recorded, of course, but they’re not really as a result of domestic violence. They occur occasionally, but no significant spike in cases so far.

TWW: Alright. Our final profession related question is on brain drain, especially of young nurses from Nigeria moving to other countries in search of greener pasture, because we hear the welfare of health workers in Nigeria, nurses included, is very poor. We would love to hear from you, ma’am. Would you say nurses in Nigeria are well compensated for the training process they go through and they should stay in practice or do you support them leaving because they are truly poorly compensated?

NNO: Hmm, that’s a no go area. If not for family issues, because we are already established, even we the older ones would desire to leave because the condition of service in Nigeria is very poor compared to the training received. It is very poor; you can’t compare it at all. The migration is necessary. There are even older ones migrating despite their family establishment, so let’s just leave that area. It’s very poor to talk about.

TWW: Wow, thank you very much, ma’am. Finally, we’d like to know if you have any word of advice for our readers and followers, especially those who are studying or aspiring students in the medical line.

NNO: What I would say is that personally, I see it as a privilege to take care of the highest creature on earth. Man is the highest creature that God made and he gave us the earth to manage. A president can even come for you to treat him and you can go as far as giving an injection. He won’t refuse because he is a president; he won’t be ashamed exposing himself to get treated. It’s a profession I am proud of despite the poor working conditions in the country.

I see it as a huge privilege attending to God’s biggest creation on earth. So, I advise and encourage whoever has the call; don’t always look at the money. Derive joy in doing the work and fulfilling the assignment giving to you by your creator. Focus on the assignment, and less on the money, so it won’t affect your productivity.

TWW: Awesome advice there. So, that’s a wrap. Thank you very much for having us ma’am. We are sure our audience would learn a lot from this, and we look forward to visiting you some other time.

NNO: Thank you too. God bless you.

I hope you were able to pick a number of vital points from this. Expect another interview same day next week.

Stay smart!