Medical personnel, especially midwives and nurses, in South Sudan have been urged to uphold professional ethics and standards when handling patients.
Henry Sasa, a senior official at the Western Equatoria State health ministry, called on midwives and nurses to treat patients with utmost professionalism.
His call follows complaints from a cross-section of the public about the aggressive and unprofessional behavior of health workers, particularly nurses, and midwives.
Sasa made the remarks on Monday in Wau Town during the belated combined celebrations to commemorate the International Day of the Midwife and International Nurses Day which are marked on 5 May and 12 May respectively.
The health official however acknowledged that low remuneration and delays in paying health workers’ salaries had affected the morale of health workers.
“When we talk about the challenges, they are very many, one of them is low payment and delays in payment of the salaries,” Sasa said. “We in the Ministry of Health are working on that, we want to see that nurses and midwives are well paid so that they are motivated.”
Sasa also admitted that some medical personnel are unprofessional when handling patients.
“People are saying that some of the nurses and midwives are very rude, they do not follow medical ethics and it is true,” he said. “Maybe it is a matter of protest because of the delays of payments as was mentioned here. We are advocating so that a budget is allocated.”
According to Sasa, some patients are also very rude to the medical staff and sometimes the relatives who care for them threaten to bring guns to the health facility.
On his part, Pasquale Dotaki, the Principal of the Wau Health Sciences Institute, concurred with Sasa that some nurses and midwives were very rude to patients.
“I agreed with it. It is happening and in such a forum, if we talk about medical ethics, it is being rude to your patients, to tell your patients that you know,” he stated.
A nurse, Makuei Aken Mayom, who spoke to the media during the event, urged his colleagues to maintain their professional ethics and respect patients.
“My message to the people who are hearing me now, and to my fellow brothers and sisters who are nurses and midwives, is that I am encouraging you to deliver high-quality services to our mothers and patients,” he counseled. “We now know that the economic situation has reached difficult levels but let us do our best because this is our profession.”
Meanwhile, Santos Uyu Agor who represented the South Sudan Nurses and Midwiferies Association said the day is marked internationally to recognize the work of midwives and nurses.
“The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) recognizes that midwives are a vital solution in adapting health systems to climate change and lowering carbon emissions,” he said. “Overall, midwives deliver safe and environmentally sustainable health services and are first respondents when climate disasters hit.”
International Nurses Day is the day celebrated annually and globally every 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. The International Council of Nurses Commemorates this important day each year and encourages nurses everywhere to do likewise.
The International Council of Nurses celebrates this event to increase public awareness about nurses’ contribution toward health care delivery. The year’s theme is “Our Nurses, Our Future: the Economic Power of Care.”