I Wash And Plait My Patients, It’s Painful To Hear People Say Nurses Are Rude – Nurse Kama

By M. M Murama

Rahila Nehemiah Kama, a Nigerian female nurse, has expressed her disapproval over negative perceptions people generally have about nurses, particularly, female nurses in Nigeria.

Kama, who has worked for 15 years in government hospitals, including Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Azare, in Bauchi State, told AFRICAN CULTURE TV that the way people regard female nurses as bad, rude or flirtatious is not only demeaning, but also painful to them that are in the profession.

Speaking in this interview, she noted that although she’s currently working with a french organisation, however, those years of working experience in government hospitals taught her that nurses are good and caring people who go the extra mile to give care to patients under their watch.

Except…

Tell us about your personal experience working as a nurse. 

My working experience as a nurse in Nigeria is a rollercoaster kind of experience, in the sense that it is a sweet and bitter experience. Sweet, because I had the opportunity to practise nursing which has been my passion, bitter because the system isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

Imagine a nurse working alone and caring for 28 postoperative patients per ward in Female Surgical Ward and Female/Paediatric Ward. The ward has a capacity of 28 beds.

What were your best and worst experiences working as a nurse?

My best experience working as a nurse has always been those moments my patients would turn, look me in the eyes with warm smiles on their faces and say; ‘thank you’, after a procedure or discharge.

Also, my best moments were when I earned three commendation letters from the management of FMC Azare, which I would like to share with you to let you know that there are lots of good nurses out there.

And my worst experience was a particular day that I took over the ward from the evening nurse and didn’t have the time to eat because of the workload, and even lost two patients that night shortly after they did surgeries. The stress was much; my legs became swollen, my back ached and couldn’t even sleep because I had to drive from Bauchi to Maiduguri.

Have you ever been moved by the negative things people say about nurses?

It has always been a problem to me whenever I hear people say nurses are arrogant, or hear nurses being given negative names in movies. Or others feel nurses are wayward etc.

Yes, there may be few arrogant ones among us who transfer aggression from home to workplace, but most nurses are caring, loving, faithful wives, good mothers and so on.

The worst I heard as I have mentioned above is nurses are wayward.

How do you balance your emotions and work coupled with the daily stress nurses pass through daily on duty?

This is a difficult question, difficult because it requires an emotionally mature person to be able to balance emotions, because the workload sometimes can set one off balance.

But then, the question still begs for an answer. How do you personally handle it?

In my own case, being in the nurses uniform alone gives me all the strength and enablement I require to work for the day. It kind of comes from my subconscious mind.

What unique thing did you do that made you receive the commendation letter regarding patients’ hair?

My Head of department (H.O.D) came for rounds and saw me braiding a patient’s hair, and he was told that I do wash and braid my patient’s hair.

What motivated you into taking your patients’ hair?

Some female patients can stay in the hospital for as long as two to three months and their hairs are usually not a good sight to behold, hence I decided the hygiene should be from head to toe.

What advice do you have for other nurses who feel downtrodden by what people say about the profession? 

I will advise them to focus on the work and forget about distractions which is something that every nurse out there is familiar with