Dear Editor,
As a concerned resident of Moruca. I would like to make those in authority at the regional and national level in the Ministry of Public Health aware of an act of gross neglect and blatant disregard to the code of ethics that encompass the nursing profession. On the 7th of August 2018 at the Kumaka District Hospital. A maternity patient was treated in a most brutal way by a nurse, a trained midwife. The nurse who checked the patient earlier told her that she wasn’t ready yet for delivery and needed dilation to the required cm. Despite being in great pain she was told to return to her bed. It was at that point the patient told the nurse that the baby was on its way and that’s when the nurse flew into a rage and said to the patient that “if you all don’t know to count when you all time ready you all mustn’t make baby and I am hungry and it’s not me to be on duty”, she then left the patient.
The baby was on its way, the mother was crying out in labour and was assisted by a health worker. By this time the midwife returned to the labouring mother with the baby’s head almost protruding. The nurse had the audacity to ask the patient if she couldn’t make it to the labour room which is approximately fifteen meters away. How cruel!
Editor, I am writing this letter to highlight that these acts of crudity are not isolated to one hospital but seem to be happening over and over. As such I am now calling on the authorities to investigate this incident as there were many incidents such as this one but they are usually swept under the carpet.
Further, I would like to state that in the past the older nurses treated their jobs with more professionalism.
Yours faithfully,
(Names and address supplied)