The Sunday Mail
Forward Nyanyiwa
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, will forever be considered by Americans as a hero for the role he played at a time his nation was divided.
He nursed American democracy in moments it could have failed.
Lincoln’s stature and reputation seemingly overshadowed the role also played by his wife, Mary Todd, who, despite coming from a rich family, volunteered to nurse wounded soldiers during the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), which left 828 000 dead.
In the midst of the deafening sounds of guns and shrapnel, Mary Lincoln swapped her First Lady jacket to nurse wounded soldiers during America’s darkest moments in history.
It didn’t end there.
She also took time to nurse her husband after an assassination attempt on April 14 1865.
However, Lincoln later succumbed to gunshot wounds a day later.
In the history of the nursing profession, she is rated in the same league with Clara Barton, Mary Seacole – nursing heroes of the Crimean War – and the famed Florence Nightingale, founder of modern-day nursing.
Back home, Mbuya Maud Muzenda, the late wife to late former Vice-President Dr Simon “Mzee” Muzenda, is an epitome of this profession, which she served with distinction in pre-independent Zimbabwe.
Apart from serving the liberation fighters, Mbuya Muzenda also worked in Masvingo and other local hospitals as she helped to lay the foundation for the profession locally.
Mbuya Bona Mugabe – mother to former president Robert Mugabe – was also a nurse, suggesting that the profession was highly regarded then.
Fast forward to 2019, and the nursing profession seems to have lost its sanctity.
It is an open secret that we have a crisis in nursing as today’s nurses will have to up their game to match the aforementioned nursing heroines who excelled in the profession.
The story of Masvingo General Hospital nurse Kundai Chitita, which made headlines recently, made a sad reading.
Sister Chitita is alleged to have recorded patients in labour before sending the videos to her boyfriend, who, as fate would have it, later exposed the unethical conduct following their split.
The recordings captured women who were groaning and screaming while in the throes of labour pains.
Sadly, the story follows hot on the heels of reports of another male nurse, Taurai Mazarura, who was allegedly caught red-handed raping a female patient in Ward A1 at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals last year.
Early last year, a South African-based Zimbabwean nurse who attended to the late Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, Ms Nomsa Ncube (now deceased), caused an outrage after pictures of her and the ailing politician went viral on social media.
Unfortunately, she was found dead the next morning.
Her superiors at the Wits Gordon Hospital had summoned her for a disciplinary hearing.
In December 2018, another Zimbabwean nurse based in the Diaspora, Mr Givemore Gezi, was sentenced to seven years by Exeter Crown Court (UK) after impregnating and arranging an abortion for a 15-year-old patient.
It seems unethical conduct has taken root in the profession.
Nurses have a professional duty to respect patients’ dignity.
The famed compassionate environs of our hospitals have now been turned into prisons.
The situation is not due to the decay of our health system, but is mostly due to the attitude of some bad apples in the profession.
The profession has unsurprisingly lost its lustre.
Incidents of physical and verbal abuse against patients in health care institutions continue unabated and their privacy continue to be breached with reckless abandon.
The Patients’ Charter calls for the dignity and upholding of patients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality all the time.
Apart from the anti-social behaviour that Zimbabweans have been subjected to at most health institutions, which ranges from verbal abuse to unnecessary loss of their hard-earned money through back-door procedures, it is the disregard for people’s privacy that is worrying.
Even our culture forbids one from exposing someone’s health status to the public.
Back in the village, words like “arikudzimbikana”, “paita hutenda” have been used since time immemorial to try and mask the real cause of the exact illness.
The nursing profession requires good moral values and the sense of “hunhu/Ubuntu”.
While some may argue that the advent of technology through social media is to blame, it is quite clear that the way the nurses are recruited and trained needs to be reviewed.
It seems most people that ended up joining the profession did so out of desperation, but not as their long-cherished vocation.
Further, corrupt recruitment processes, which reward nurse training opportunities to those with fat pockets, has affected the calibre of professionals in the sector.
The tutors, who are supposed to instil universal values of care and compassion, are allegedly on the forefront of corrupt acts, leading to the death of the profession.
It is also hard to disagree with the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Dr Sekai Nzenza, a nurse by training, who believes social media has eroded some key values of the profession.
“I trained in the 1980s and back then, it was a calling.
“One had to have a soft heart for the sick to become a nurse and remember, there were various professions.
“We were taught to respect the patient. In fact, we were told the patient was our customer. Never did we had instances of a nurse exposing the patient to danger.
“It is my thinking that social media has eroded a lot of ethics within the profession,” she recently said.
There is absolute need to revisit the current recruitment procedures and training modules to ensure that the nursing profession retains its lost value and worth.
