Community nurses in the Eastern Region have kicked against a suggestion made by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Secretary for Berekum West Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, Isaac Kwasi Osei, to send some nurses to the sickbays of various Senior High Schools (SHS) in the country to help curb unemployment on the part of the health sector.
In an interview with a cross section of the nurses, they said that, the most worrying aspect of this unemployment issue is when well to-do parents use huge sums of money to secure jobs for their wards which they usually called “protocol”, leaving the poor to suffer.
“We wish that government would provide more vacancy for us to work rather than sending us to sickbays. Some officials are saying that most hospitals are loaded with enough staff which we think it’s false,” they said.
They continued that, most health centers, especially in Koforidua still have vacancies to occupy those graduate nurses at home. Most of times the number of patients to care for becomes many and due to insufficient workers, they get stranded and work becomes very difficult.
“Sending us to sickbays would diminish our status. We suggest that government should rather post most of us to the health centers to make work less stressful,” they declared.
Meanwhile, other nurses also think that, if payments of salaries are going to be very good or equal to payments other nurses gain at the hospitals and health centers, posting other nurses to these sickbays wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.
As far as they are not locked home without employment, they don’t have anything against the suggestion made by the Berekum West constituency secretary, and working in SHS sickbays has nothing to do with their credibility as nurses.
They have therefore pleaded with government and the Ministry of Health to give keen ear to their dilemma and put measures in place to get them posted if not to the hospitals then to the sickbays because they are in dire need of employment.
