Change your attitude towards patients : Nurses admonished

The President of the Korle Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College Alumni (NMTCA), Mrs Felicia Dagadu, has admonished nurses to be mindful of their attitude towards patients as the negative behaviour by some of them is tarnishing the image of the profession.

According to her, most people have lost confidence in the profession and even doubted the credibility of some nurses because of the negative character traits which they exhibited towards patients. 

Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the launch of the 20th anniversary of the NMTCA in Accra, Mrs  Dagadu said the nursing profession was one that required total dedication and tolerance.

“Nursing is not just a profession but a calling. The profession deals with human lives and is very sensitive, so the attitude you exhibit towards patients form a critical part of their health care,” she said.

Theme 

Explaining further, she said that the theme for the anniversary “The Changing Phases of Nursing and Midwifery in Ghana; Its Impact on Nursing and Midwifery Practice” was carefully chosen because of the attitudinal problems of the 21st generation of nurses.

She reiterated that the theme was meant to inculcate the ethics of the profession in nursing students and ensure that the requisite standards of the profession were instilled in the students before they graduated.

Image

The guest speaker, Mrs Theodora Agbu, Director of Nursing at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, stated that the gap between the theory of nursing and its practice needed to be bridged.

“You must redeem the image of the profession because you have a duty to ensure national development by rendering services to the cause of humanity and saving lives,” she said.

Screening

An official of the Ministry of Health, Mr George Kumi Kyeremeh, said the screening process in admitting students to the various training schools should be intensified to ensure that only competent and qualified people were accepted.

He emphasised that there should also be strict supervision of the nurses in their line of duty upon graduation.