How Insufficient Cotton Wool, Syringe, Others At National Hospital Hinder Service Delivery

Today is the International Day of Midwife (IDM), which is celebrated annually to recognise the roles being played globally by nurses and midwives in helping pregnant women during labour, delivery, and after the birth of their babies.

But despite the vital roles they play, Nigerian midwives and nurses are still faced with barriers of inadequacies in the tools they use for work and their general welfare.

Speaking to THE WHISTLER, the Chairman of Nurses and Midwives at the National Hospital, Joseph Akpi, narrated some of the challenges facing health professionals in that sector.

Akpi said the insufficiency of working tools and consumables such as cotton wool, syringes, and needles are limiting the effective output of their services.

He said: “Nursing is an interesting profession and it is all about service to humanity. It comes with a lot of challenges especially when working in a condition where you don’t have much serviceable equipment to work with.

“Basically, as a nurse, you don’t just work without things. You don’t work in isolation; you have to work with materials.

“Other days, you need consumables and I mean consumables like cotton wool, needles and syringes etc. When you don’t have enough of these things to work with, you tend to be handicapped and It makes the job very difficult and tedious.

“Also, remuneration is one of the challenges we have in nursing most especially in Nigeria. It is not as adequate to what we do as nurses because you tend to have issues about your financial, psychological and physical needs that you need to meet up with”.

Although the chairman described the issues as universal, he said nurses and midwives at the National Hospital clinic still render services regardless, but noted that adequate provision of their needs would make their job better.

Meanwhile, to commemorate the IDM in Nigeria, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), FCT Council, had Tuesday converged on Transcorp Hilton to kick against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), especially among women.

Our correspondent reports that the NANNM is seeking to make members of the society see violence as a health problem.

In Nigeria, GBV is “widespread as 30 per cent of women aged 15-49 have reported experiences of sexual abuse,” said the association. According to the Ministry of Women Affairs, no fewer than 3,491 cases of GBV have been reported.

As part of their call to action, the group called on “all state yet to adopt the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act and Child Right Act (CRA), to do so to protect our women and girls”, among others.

This year’s IDM is themed “Follow the Data: Invest in Midwives”.