Thank a Nurse - Kenya

Christine Wa Kinyua
Who bewitched us?are we not supposed to practice more of witcraft than witchcraft or even feel bewitched?

On the matter at hand since a week or so I am left with only one conclusion, that we the nurses in Kenya have been cast on some spell ,the spell that finds us unable to reason, afraid to stand up,a spell that makes us door mats for our seniors to wipe their feet as they move on.

Let me speak about the Mary(read nurses)..... Twenty five years of service to humankind is no joke! Some have argued she should have retired by now,I choose not to go that way because its not in my place to dictate who retires and who remains, its also not in my place to point who is a better Mary than the other....

Twenty five years she has held hands, she has comforted,she has prayed,cried.....
She has emptied thousands of bed pans,sputum mugs,vomiting bowls....
She has changed all kinds of dressings, done bed baths,....she has charted,giving medications .....at this point I stop and ask if any of you has never made a mistake (some very serious but you vowed to die with it)cast the first stone!

Women who apparently are the majority of healthcare workers have been known to be more compassionate, the healers maybe because of the motherly instincts,care giving is our birth right but what happens when that right is overwhelmed?

At Marys age coupled with Diabetes and Hypertension, working at night in a ward filled up with a total of 61 patients does not only make her feet swell but can also see her drop from what I choose to call compassion fatigue!

I work in a place where the patient nurse ratio is at most 5:1.....when its overwhelming we are bound to get irritable I can only imagine the Mary's of KNH what they go through? What kind of nursing care do they even manage to give?

While handing over, the protocol is to move from from bed to bed as you introduce your colleagues ,in a ward with 61patients how is that even possible? When should they go round the whole unit and settle for the 'night running'?....

Nurses are not even known by their own names....that's when you hear client call you daktari! we are not even known for our own work....that's when you hear the food was cold,the parking is full,the doctor did not explain this to me!........we have been reduced to filling shortages across the hospital, clerks,maids,caterers, punching bags ....

I agree we are the patient s advocates and that we must do to the best of our knowledge....

As far as KNH saga is concerned,let's stop blaming the nurse and ensure things go right!.Create a system that builds an access to knowledge and workforce for safe patient care
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Nurses translates doctors orders into action,while this is our part to play,we need to learn to question if in doubt!

The nursing council of Kenya whom I choose at this point to call the NOTHING council of Kenya should pull up their socks!
The meeting that was held to discuss the issues was attended by members of the medical board,where was the Nursing body to stand with their own?....even I would be intimidated by the kind of shouting and throwing of hands by Dr Nyikal !

Dr Magoko called the ward and demanded to know if the patient that was presented to him was indeed Nderitu?had he seen the patient prior as is the protocol he would have helped stop the mess.

When I had craniotomy,I had the surgeon visit me which made him familiar with what face he was going to meet later!

I am wondering if consent for this patient was signed and if so at what point?in the ward or in theatre?Let every nurse learn from this to resist wheeling patients to theatre before consent is signed not outside theatre but in the ward unless its an emergency.
Even as we continue to bear blames for mistakes done collectively(remember the murder in KNH?only nurses were accused)let's find our comfort below:
Called to nursing care;Isaiah 61
Night shift/long hours with nothing to show for it;Luke5:1-11
Stress as a nursing student;Mark 1
Compassion fatigue/burn out;the book of Philippians.

Much as the world will refer to nurses using those judgemental sentiments.. ..We in the Nursing family will continue walking with our shoulders High,with a clear conscience that given the circumstances we worked in,we always and ever did what everyone else in similar circumstances would have done....
Nursing scores of very feeble and helpless beings everyday,too helpless to imagine they could ever ask for any other Angel than a nurse at such times,.....
while someone out there assumes that nurses are the reason for the sick person's pain, the sick actually know that nurses are the source of relieve they ever wished for....
while someone insinuates that a nurse walking swiftly in the hospital corridors has abandoned the patient, the sick know that actually this trip is bringing along some heavenly concoction for their upset...
While someone becomes a celeb by uploading photo,where group of nurses were "watching videos from the internet", the patient knows very well that it is through consultation and research that they'll be given a better alternative to ease their discomfort...
While that relative feels like stabbing the nurse from behind because they are on a call,the patient smiles because they know someone is asking about their care from the other nurse who handed over..just to join the gaps....
While the visitor judges that the nurse is sat taking tea and a snack while the patient is hurting alone,the patient is the one who has actually asked the nurse to take a break,lest they fell of exhaustion before the shift is over.....
So my dear colleagues in this nursing family, do not let their sentiments define you, let the one who'll be nursed by you be the one to say what you are actually are...people cannot all be sick at the same time,yet they cannot experience what we really are until they are in our hands..Do we pray they fall ill? No we won't!
Do we keep arguing with them on our significance? No need!
Do we need their approval to push the government to improve our terms and conditions of work? Not at all!
Leave the public alone, overcome the stigma,refuse the stereotype..and serve your client with a focused mind.....and


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This is How Doctors/Nurse Sleep !!! Tag a Night Shift Doc/Nurse ;

This made my day

Today is World Anaesthesia Day.
We want to celebrate the Nurse Anaesthetists.
They are skilled enough to Make you 'paralyzed ' and at the make you well again. They ensure your safety before, during and after an Operation. We appreciate your devotion and commitment.

More than 30 years ago, registered nurse Jeanne Hahne came up with the idea for a clear surgical face mask she could use to better communicate with her patients. Today, she has made that idea a reality known as the FaceView Mask, and it may soon be coming to a hospital near you.

Bringing a new spin to a tool many nurses use every day, the FaceView Mask features a clear window allowing patients to see more of the face of their caregiver. Hahne says this improves communication and care.

“I was working in a burn unit and I was covered head to toe. I was trying to create a therapeutic bond with the patient; then I would come back the next day and they wouldn’t even recognize me,” Hahne said during a phone interview with Scrubs magazine. “And I was trying to make a connection with them—that’s where the idea came about.”.....

My fiance is a emergency room nurse tech. She's dealt with pain, sickness, and death first hand more times than I would like her to have to dealt with. She's come home saddened by these events more times than I can count but still she continues to help people. There was an incident lately she had to help with that she did so like a boss. As I sit here tonight trying to do something nice for her by cleaning her work shoes it's made me realize something. Especially for people in relationships with nurses. And that's the patience it takes to be apart of someone's life that has the line of work she does. Although she can't give me details, she comes home wanting to talk about the work she's done, the good, bad, and ugly. (Hospital policy's don't allow it) And you 120% have to be there for them. You may have had a bad day at work with a customer who has a sh*tty attitude, but she watched someone take their last breath as she tried to save their life. She had to be there as a mother and father were told their child was no longer with them, she had to watch a 2,4, or even 7 year old fight for their life, or she had to break the news to an elderly lady that her husband of 50 years wants to see her before he goes. In my case that nurse is a she. But for respect of all nurses it does go towards both women and men nurses. Respect the people taking care of you. Whether it's a migraine or a serious injury. You have no idea about the patient they had before you or will have after you. Feel free to share to your nurses to show your respect.

THIS POST WILL INSPIRE YOU ..... AND MAKE YOU CRY! Wheelchair could not stop her dream to heal the world through nursing. Please let us show her plenty love! Share this post till the whole world know about her!!
Andrea Dalzel wrote:
Hey everyone:
I'm about to enter my last semester in nursing school and to be honest I'm terrified.
Unlike all of you in this group, I am in a wheelchair! Now before judgement is placed allow me to address the fact that I know nurses with disabilities are rare and those in wheelchairs are next to non existent, especially going through nursing school let alone in the field.
I have completed all my clinical practices thus far and the only thing I can not do is transfer a client from a bed to a chair or up to walk for obvious reasons.
I have a quick response time and I'm great under pressure. Nothing anyone could think of, I haven't thought of before and have figured out 30 steps ahead of time knowing that I have to keep myself and my clients well being (safety) at the highest priority.
I bring this up now because I see all of you excelling and moving into your careers and I know in order for me to achieve what is considered the impossible, I have to start having the conversation that surrounds my chair. Another young woman in a wheelchair reached out to me An spoke on how she can't find a job and job offers have been rescinded due to her chair.
When I was first told I would never walk again, it was the nurses that had my back. 33 surgeries, 3 codes, and multiple hospital stays later and it was the nurses who kept me going.
My first semester in nursing school I went into help a peer get a newly DX stroke clients set of vitals, when I rolled in the client started crying because she never saw a nurse in a chair and with her new DX she thought life was over. This woman for the first time since her DX didn't give any hard times after our encounter and Decided on going to rehab.
I knew then nursing was more than a passion but a calling.
Guess this post is seeking support knowing that I'm up against the odds and I know that me proving myself won't be enough since my chair stands out first....

It has been an awesome experience working as a nurse for such a long time and still counting.
Whether nursing is a calling or not I leave that for debate, but meanwhile let's just say it is a profession with a huge touch of humanity.
We have seen life at its birth and so have we seen its end,we have supported each part with utmost dedication.
We have been labelled,we have been slapped,we have been appreciated and we have been celebrated.
As we enter into the nurses week,let's take a moment and celebrate us,let's celebrate the midwife who stood by you when that pain was not giving in,that nurse that helped clean you up, the one that saw your pain and rushed to alleviate it,the one that held your shoulder when you lost a loved one and comforted you,the one.......
Let's take a moment of silence and remember our friends/colleagues who have left while in uniform( )
Happy nurses week to all the ladies and gents in white!.. Christine Wa Kinyua

Appreciating our silent angels..

Today we are celebrating 🎉this silent angel called Mercy Sang ..... Serving the community at Tenwek Mission Hospital... 🏥. Sis we thank God for your service..

" I salute Clinical officers and Nurses. Your service is appreciated by a grateful Nation..".. President Kenyatta.. We join the president in appreciating this beautiful souls for their dedication and sacrifices to the community. God bless you..

" I salute Clinical officers and Nurses. Your service is appreciated by a grateful Nation..".. President Kenyatta..

Celebrating 🎉 🎉 all silent angels 👼 in our hospitals 🏥..... .

Thank A Nurse -Kenya will resume public forums and participation in Appreciating our silent angels in our hospitals 🏥 in the month of March. .. Issuance of appreciation certificate, flowers and thank you cards will be rolling back ..... The next visit will be announced by next week.... Welcome...

I appreciate all the inbox messages by patients and potential patients on the negligence cases in our hospitals.

Health care is not about Doctors only, in fact it is about every single Kenyan, learned or not.

I also appreciate the messages from Doctors those insulting and those civil in engagement.

I totally agree with one Doctor who has inboxed and told me, " cases of negligence from a relative of a victim are skewed and unnecessarily emotional, balance them with findings by the regulator"

I appreciate tens of messages from Clinical officers and Nurses telling me about their own situations and the hardwork they are putting in to ensure that public Hospitals are operational and people continue getting relief from pain by getting treatment.

I specifically note one, " Can you ask why pharmacists have locked some public hospital pharmacies and are on strike with keys? If they care for the people why would they lock out those of us who do their jobs even when they are not on strike?"

"By the way Dennis, ask pharmacists why they should benefit from a Call allowance..."

I also appreciate the numerous messages of those saying they now understand exactly what is in the CBA.

A Doctor who tells me he is writing from Nakuru tells me, "The reason I am giving three hours to the hospital despite the strike is that at the end of the day, we are Civil Servants. Public Servants are driven by service"

But I also agree with Inbox messages disagreeing with me for instance, let me single out " Itumbi first good job on summarizing what the CBA demands are. Government should have done that from the beginning. But you fail because you are not offering a solution"

For those insulting me there is no need of hitting my inbox, just do it here.

Then to those who have mobilised to report my page, to Facebook Admin, hoping it is brought down, keep going.

Keep the messages coming......

I Salute Clinical Officers, Lab Technicians and Nurses for keeping our hospitals operational and relieving the pain of many.

One great lesson learnt is that Doctors can be on strike for long, but the 70,000 health workers in hospital are the ones who run the bulk of our health care.

Clinical Officers and Nurses Asanteni sana.

Standing Ovation.

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Some respect for nurses...

I am just a nurse. A Labor and Delivery nurse. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well...

I am just the nurse who was there during the birth of your child.

I am just the nurse who held your hand, looked you in the eye, and made you feel like the strongest woman in the world.

I am just the nurse who recognized that you had severe preeclampsia and got an order from your physician for magnesium sulfate to prevent you from seizing.

I am just the nurse who carefully monitored your breathing WITH MY STETHOSCOPE because I know the possible complications.

I am just the nurse who vigilantly monitored your baby's heartbeat and recognized that he was in distress.

I am also just the nurse who had you on the OR table by the time your doctor was in the parking lot to deliver a healthy baby.

I am the nurse who took photos of your baby because you were all alone... Even though I should really be charting and doing about a hundred other things.

I am just the nurse who's family has to experience another day without me because I stayed 3 hours late to see you through a difficult delivery.

I am just the nurse who maintained your dignity and made you feel comfortable when you were at your most vulnerable.

I am just the nurse who convinced your OB to give you more time before performing a cesarean section.

I am also just the nurse who waited as long as possible to call your OB for delivery so that he wouldn't cut an episiotomy.

I am just the nurse who held your hand and cried with you when you came through triage... and your baby had no heartbeat.

I am just the nurse who hasn't had ANYTHING to eat or drink since my cup of coffee I drank this morning when I woke up... at 5am.

I am just the nurse who will let you leave grip marks on her arm while you are getting your epidural, while repeating to you, "You are doing an amazing job. Almost there. You can do it."

I am just the nurse who reassured a teenage mom that she can be an amazing parent and still get an education.

I am also just the nurse who stood by you while you handed your baby to his adoptive mother. I held you steady. I watched you tremble. My heart ached for you.

I am just the nurse who knows that preventing the primary cesarean helps prevent future cesareans and all of the associated risks for each future pregnancy and, therefore, will do everything in my experienced power to encourage your baby to position herself correctly in your pelvis.

I am just the nurse who held your hand and told you, "She is beautiful. I am so so sorry for your loss." My heart ached for you. I wanted to hold my children and never let them go that night... but they were already sleeping because I stayed late to be with you.

I am also just the nurse who cried the entire drive home and who's husband doesn't even have to ask how my day was.
He knows.

Today.

Every day.

I felt your joy.
I felt your pain.
I wiped your tears.
I calmed your fears.
I kept your secrets.
I taught you how strong you are.
I saved your life.
I saved your child's life.
My body aches.
My heart aches.

And I love every minute.

I am JUST a Labor and Delivery nurse.

~ anonymous

Dear Doctors,

Thank you for writing to the me, Miss Middle class.

It is a good time to write to me because am broke. and therefore am able to write this reply to your long note.

I have worked in Meru, Kakamega, Kitale, Siaya Nakuru and now Nairobi over the years.

I am among the few Rendile people.

I note that you say your strike is to make sure that we have the best health care.

That you want Government to invest more to ensure there is better equipment and personnel.

I am a proud father of four. My Firstborn is a medical Engineer and has a sub contract to install machines in Hospitals and recently he showed me the many Theatres and dialysis machines he had installed across the country.

Our Shamba assistant recently asked for a 6k loan so that he would take the wife to hospital for delivery, he too did not believe its free. We gave him the money. When he returned he confirmed maternity was indeed free.

But that is the positive story.

My neighbour in Machakos, where I have settled, had a terrible accident and when he was rushed to hospital at 5.32pm by eye witnesses, no doctor could be found. Please note there was no strike and the issue was not equipment or state of our hospitals.

In fact nurses finally managed to get two Doctors and both told them they were not available - never mind one was on duty.

Luckily for us we could afford a St. John's ambulance from Nairobi. We still lost him. The case is before the board.

That is not all. Hundreds of cases of attitude are narrated every other time in funerals across the country.

To be sincere in my sojourn across Kenya, Doctor's are either in their private clinics or bars and rarely in the public hospital.

Nurses and Clinical officers do lots of work.

Now from my understanding the 300% demand is a cost of 10b a year. If Indeed the Doctor's strike has little to do with salary and everything to do with better health care for all. Drop that demand and insist that 12b be used to hire more Specialists to run hospitals.

I remember losing a collegue because from Maua to Embu to Sagana to Thika there was no single CT Scan...I was happy to read that Meru...Embu...And all 94 hospitals have a CT scan.

In essence private hospitals are referring people to public hospitals for tests because of advanced machinery.

Finally dear Doctor let me address you as a patient.

Dialysis closer home is a relief for all of us, I should add you to our Kidney Patients WhatsApp group and you sense the relief brought by the actions of Government.

We will not all vote for the current Government, but credit must be given, on that front they have done well.

So dear Doctor, fight for your salary increase. But fix your attitude when you return.

All we want as patients is treatment. So far at least the Nurses and Clinical officers are doing their best and I salute them.

Strike but do not say you are doing it for us. We know you are not.

My third born daughter is a Doctor, I have asked her to report to work and treat as many as her hands can do.

Glad she is working, I hope Government rewards doctors who have listened to their conscious and are working.

As a sign of Goodwill and for my daughter who is working the offer I saw on WhatsApp the other other day should be signed with the Doctor's who are working.

Give them the raise starting January. Why concentrate on those shouting when there are those working?

Have a blessed day

Yours Sincerely,

The Middle Class Patient.

LET'S FACE IT: STATE IS LYING, DOCTORS DESERVE BETTER.

"I’m a consulting surgeon working at the top referral hospital in the country and my monthly take home salary is Sh180,000.
If anyone can believe that a junior doctor is taking home Sh140,000 as claimed by the government, then you are not being realistic. Much of this money is in the form of allowances, meaning it does not count towards my retirement benefits.
Therefore, if I was to rely on my salary alone, I would at my time of retirement have no income to speak of. I have no health cover.
So when I’m sick, I can hardly pay for the services I provide. My high school colleagues currently in other professions, know they make much more than I do.
To build my income, I engage in private practice, which I must do outside my work hours. This means when you are at home relaxing with your families, I’m somewhere serving “middle class” people like you, who imagine I must be very wealthy because their insurance pays me.
For those of you who work in the insurance industry, you know it can take up to six months to get payment of medical claims. Some of my claims have taken up to two years and some have never been settled.
When things go wrong with your treatment, you are the first to rush to court. Do you know how much it costs to settle malpractice claims?
I’m the one who must balance the risks and benefits of every treatment and ensure you come out not just alive, but better. None of this is ever remembered when things do not go as planned.
I can’t understand people who think the life of a doctor is a walk in the park and we are entitled idiots. If only you could put yourself in my children’s shoes!
Their father never comes for their sports day at school or even for their prize giving when they emerge tops in their classes, never helps them with their homework and doesn’t know the names of their friends because he is never there to meet them.
Look yourself in the mirror and honestly ask yourself who should be paid more. Is it a politician or the man who helps save you and your loved ones at your most vulnerable moment?
Hypocrisy does not sit well with you, get off your high horse."


The author is a consulting Surgeon.

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Be warned...

Happy Festive season to all Nurses all around the world.
During this festive season we recognise the Good job of one Irene Wanderi Nduru she works at the maternity postnatal /antenatal ward, at Machakos Referral Hospital. She's a very focused and responsible nurse demonstrating principles and professionalism in nursing.
Your efforts don't go un-noticed.
We wish you all happy Holidays and God bless the Nursing Fraternity.

Celebrating this wonderful silent angel Mary ng'ang'a....she works at Melchizedek hospital at outpatient department.. Your sacrifice doesn't go unnoticed.. Be blessed sister.. Like our Page www.facebook.com/thankanursekenya

Today we celebrate this Hero who works in the Maternity Ward in Malindi Sub County Hospital. Swaleh you have demonstrated that truly Nursing is not only a calling but also a sacrifice to save human life. Your dedication, Courage, Empathy, support and Professionalism you offer to the Women in Labour cannot be over looked or overlooked. Only God can pay you. We thank you,we Celebrate you. Kudos....