The political devaluation of nursing in Ghana

I'm filled with much pain and extremely worried anytime it dawns on me that I’m a Ghanaian. Salient questions on my mind still cry for quick answers, nonetheless, the caricaturious animal called Politics is the major stumbling block that prevents the truth to triumph over naked lies.

Does it make sense to see numerous health facilities built across the country and yet nurses to work in there are still home losing their dexterities, especially when the already existing hospitals are in dire need of nurses?

Why is everybody silent about this canker even including some nurses both employed and unemployed?

“They came for a Jew. I did not speak because I was not a Jew. They came for a communist. I did not speak because I was not a communist. They came for a socialist. I did not speak because I was not a socialist. Then they came for me and there was nobody to speak for me.”

The extent to which politics has eroded and rusted virtually every sphere of our system is very intriguing and mind-boggling; from the church to the academia, the security to the health system to state but few. For the purpose of my background and in order not to be factually inaccurate to the records I will zero in on the health system and for that matter nursing.

Contemporary nursing in Ghana is at the brink of losing its value because of politics. In our health facilities today, the nurse to patient ratio is vast. The nursing leadership is not able to speak out boldly and demand for more qualified nurses because after rightful demand, they fear being affiliated to a political party or they are sympathisers or card- bearing members of a political party.

Even when SHS graduates/dropouts are trained for less than 6 months to “assist in health care deliveries,” when qualified and licensed nurses are not employed to deliver better and further services to innocent clients, in fact, religious leaders are mute. They’re not able to meet and advocate for patients. The reason, I’m cock sure is attributed to Mr. Politics in Ghana.

Even among the few nurses working, they’re segregated and sitting on fences because others feel that one category of nurses knows nothing yet patients ignorantly call them doctors because of their white-white uniforms and above all their take-home is bigger than theirs. Mostly, I trust and hold the strongest conviction that they speak in oblivion. These nurses wrote and passed the professional exams. But I quiz simply: how could it be practically possible for a less than 6 months trained nurses know better than a 4-year trained nurse?
Again, Mr. Politics has found himself in here or there exists a deliberate attempt to massage the truth or both.

My personal checks as a graduate nurse revealed undeniably that some but most graduate nurses shrug their shoulders, feel bossy, exhibit an act of all-knowing coupled with superiority show of lifestyle in the ward. But should this among others be a benchmark for seasoned nurses to remain mute over the employment of graduate nurses to the extent that some are glaringly seen advocating for them to remain home forever?

Without mincing words, it is not untrue that successive governments in their quest for political expediency and in order to chalk political success, SHS graduates/dropouts are strategically selected across all constituencies and districts to be trained as “nurses” to provide health care services. My cursory checks indicate that they are paid GH €250.00 monthly. These nurses are compelled to sometimes carry out procedures that even professionally licensed nurses are not supposed to do so. Who suffers the ripple effects? Do we get quality health care in the end?

My major concern in this whole saga is in an unfortunate event where these political nurses commit unpardonable errors (which mostly occur) the general public decides to take the entire nurses to the cleaners. The public easily forgets that they’re not neutral politically and their children, friends, relatives and loved ones were selected by politicians to undergo the less than 6 months training to be nurses. Not only that also, their memories failed them to delve into it to ascertain whether the hazard was caused by the 3/4 years licensed nurse or the 6 months political nurse and the root cause. Furthermore, in the media landscape where the issue gets to and become topical on the airwaves, there’s a “media cabal” because most are also political with their biases skewed. Referees in each football match are not neutral but impartiality is what expected from them.

The lock, stock and barrel is that the politicians we have given our powers to frequently fly out of the jurisdiction to seek for quality health care at even the expense of the citizenry. The partial but seasoned nurses when they fall sick are able to determine who is a diploma or degree nurse, and request for a better attention.

Don’t forget too that the less than 6 months trained nurse wouldn’t want to allow his/her colleagues he/she passed out with to work on him when taken ill.

So I ask against this background that who suffers the most in the end of this political nursing recruitment?

The onus is on everyone to think through properly and find out what is good for Ghana and not a political party.