Taiwo Jimoh 
Dr Ganiyat Olabisi Disu, President of Class 1979-1982 set of the Lagos State School of Midwifery, Igando, formerly located in the Ikoyi area of the state, has urged governments at all levels to encourage nurses and improve the state of facilities in the nation’s hospitals.
Disu said this in an interview with journalists at the 45 year Reunion of the set, which was held on Thursday at the Nurse House, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos that it is appalling that the nation has neglected nurses, who she said are important to the health sector, while also accusing the government of failing to provide healthcare facilities for the use of the people.
“We started planning in November and we are celebrating 45 years of our graduation and fifth year of reunion. Our theme is ‘Care and Compassion.’
“I had the opportunity to go to some hospitals and realised that the way nurses talk to people was not the way we used to talk to people then. I realised that technology is advancing. Instead of them facing the patients, they face the technology and the load for the nurses is high.
“Most of the nurses, when they finish from nursing schools go to other fields because they are not being taken care of, and they are not being recognised.
“A lot of them do 12 hours with no rest at all, 12 hours without enough pay and no thank you. I went to a hospital and I said I wanted to register a pregnant woman; they gave me a bill and said that if I could afford it I should stay or else I should go. I said that this was a pregnant woman and that they should care for her. We need to bring care and compassion back to the job.
“Nurses are not being recognised or paid enough. The hospitals don’t take care of the nurses. I once went to a stadium and I saw a guy fall down and the nurses were trying to revive him, but we lost him as they could not resuscitate him.
“There was an ambulance, but they didn’t have the resuscitating equipment, the only thing they had was oxygen. It’s so sad, I cried that day. I went to have some fun, but I went back sad,” she said.
She said further that nurses must be part of the decision-making in the health sector as they are the ones who get the jobs done.
She said; “Why can’t they put nurses on the table, we are not meats. We are the ones that get the job done, if there are no nurses, hospitals cannot work; let the nurses make decisions, and give them enough money and resources. Nurses are selfless and we refer to people as ‘our patients.’
“Why can’t the government, those making policies take care of us? When I was in school they took care of patients, but I have no idea where the money goes now. When they make policies, nurses must be there, they cannot be making policies for us. When they allocate, nurses must know where the money goes.
“When they build hospitals, nurses must know, that when they give money to people to build hospitals, nurses are supposed to be there to know exactly when they would do so.
“When they build hospitals, the outside would be so good, but there is no equipment there. Nice environment with no equipment to treat people. “
Also speaking, the initiator of the group, Mrs Rashidat Adenrele Omobitan, said that they felt that they should bring themselves together five years ago after about 40 years of graduation.
“The motive of coming together is to help ourselves and help individuals outside. We feel that fingers are not equal and that we could help ourselves by coming together and helping the community around us,” she said.
Mrs Omobitan however, said that ‘Japa’ (relocating abroad) syndrome is a problem to the profession while saying that practising midwifery and bringing forth a life from a mother’s womb is interesting.
“You are happy seeing a newborn coming from the mother, while the mother and baby are alive. But the issue of ‘Japa’ in the profession is serious.
“It can only be reduced if we change our opinion of leaving here for abroad. You are trained here and you travel out and most of the time they don’t practice.
“Some of our mates left Nigeria immediately after training and even our set President left. Nurses are not well paid in Nigeria, they work for hours, they even sleep at work and they are not appreciated.
“It’s not only the issue of money, but encouragement. Nobody encourages them again and they find solace somewhere else,” she said.
