Open Letter To All Male Nurses Fighting Quackery

Dear male Nurses,

I hope my letter meets you in good spirit. How has nursing been treating you? Treating you well? Oh… good!

It is with pleasure and concern for our dear Nursing profession that I am writing this letter to you whether you chose Nursing or it chooses you. What am I concerned about? I shall tell you in this letter. Kindly read on.

A saying goes thus;

“When a man realizes he is part of something big, his whole life changes.”

This letter here tells you how you have been contributing to quackery in Nursing (which is one of the reasons we can never get rid of quackery) as a male nurse working in private hospitals.

Quackery is one of the problems nursing profession is facing in Nigeria and that which gives masses wrong impression of who registered nurses are.

Do you know you have been indirectly populating quack nurses’ population? I was fortunate to work in two different private hospitals and there were no differences.

Yes, you have. This is how it happened.  Most of the people who own private hospitals are either not in health line or still fully employed by the government. To make sure they keep their business (private hospitals) running, they employ the services of one or two registered male nurse (only few employ female registered nurses) to act as doctor and use auxiliary (quacks) as nurses. Most private hospitals do this for two reasons. (1). Because they can’t afford to pay registered nurses if they employ more than one or two and also can’t afford medical doctors. (2) Because of the RN’s license should the government come to inspect.

While you assume the position of a doctor (which you are not) in a private hospital, those you work with are auxiliary nurses and nurse trainees (as they are usually called). What happen while at work? You teach the trainees how to be a nurse as required by your employer. Do you know that, while you teach, you create more quacks? Also, you are indirectly being paid for creating more quacks (which render some female RNs jobless).

Have you seen trained Doctor, med lab scientist, pharmacist etc training secondary school students how to be one? Am sure you have not!

If you are one of those training quacks, are you also one of those fighting against it? How are you able to do that? Take your time to answer.

In that hospital and environment you work, as a male nurse, how many people know you for who you are? They probably see you as a doctor and see your auxiliary coworkers and trainees as nurses. So, how do you positively affect images people have of nurses when your real identity is unknown?

Sure! We need the NMCN bodies and our Government to intervene. But what happen before they do? Until they legalize training of auxiliary nurses, help your profession too.

Oh no… am not saying you shouldn’t work in private hospitals. Can you work there without increasing the quack nurses’ population? If you can, very good. The fact remains, we cannot all work in government settings.

If you’re a Registered Nurse who owns a small clinic or hospital, how far with quackery at your end?

Do nursing a little favour, DO NOT INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE YOU ARE WAGING WAR AGAINST.

I have just hit you. Oya, hit me back.

I am Obembe S.D (RN, Blogger & Blog Designer)