Nurses Council must take immediate action
Jan 01, 2008
ABOUT 3,000 nurses have not been recruited into the civil service because their certificates have not been released. The nurses graduated in May and November 2006 from 31 nursing institutions.
ABOUT 3,000 nurses have not been recruited into the civil service because their certificates have not been released. The nurses graduated in May and November 2006 from 31 nursing institutions.
The outgoing president of the Uganda National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Wilber Tukamuhabwa, is at a loss as to why the Nurses Council was taking so long to register them despite the general lack of health workers in the country’s hospitals and health centres.
The few lucky nurses, who are working, are doing so on a voluntary basis because they are considered to be ‘incompetent’ since there is no proof of their qualification!
Has the Uganda National Examinations Board not released their results or is it the Nurses Council to blame?
Apart from the hardships these people have to endure, what is the state of the country’s hospitals? Is there any compensation for this imposed redundancy on the nurses?
This is strange in a country where the nurse-patient ratio is 1:11,000.
Nurses are on great demand in developed countries.
With Uganda’s increasing population, there is need to train more health personnel. We cannot talk of attaining the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015 when we have such a shortage of health workers.
According to the heath minister, Dr Stephen Mallinga, there are limited opportunities for training nurses and midwives yet they constitute the largest percentage of health-care providers in the country.
It is ironical that opportunities to provide and strengthen the skills of nurses and midwives are being frustrated at a time when nursing is becoming more critical in the country’s health development.
The way these professionals are treated is partly to blame for their flight to developed countries for greener pastures.
Health workers in Uganda earn a pittance, work under very difficult conditions and have little to look forward to.
Uganda cannot afford to undermine this much sought after human resource that is so crucial to her survival. The Nurses Council must take immediate action.
The outgoing president of the Uganda National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Wilber Tukamuhabwa, is at a loss as to why the Nurses Council was taking so long to register them despite the general lack of health workers in the country’s hospitals and health centres.
The few lucky nurses, who are working, are doing so on a voluntary basis because they are considered to be ‘incompetent’ since there is no proof of their qualification!
Has the Uganda National Examinations Board not released their results or is it the Nurses Council to blame?
Apart from the hardships these people have to endure, what is the state of the country’s hospitals? Is there any compensation for this imposed redundancy on the nurses?
This is strange in a country where the nurse-patient ratio is 1:11,000.
Nurses are on great demand in developed countries.
With Uganda’s increasing population, there is need to train more health personnel. We cannot talk of attaining the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015 when we have such a shortage of health workers.
According to the heath minister, Dr Stephen Mallinga, there are limited opportunities for training nurses and midwives yet they constitute the largest percentage of health-care providers in the country.
It is ironical that opportunities to provide and strengthen the skills of nurses and midwives are being frustrated at a time when nursing is becoming more critical in the country’s health development.
The way these professionals are treated is partly to blame for their flight to developed countries for greener pastures.
Health workers in Uganda earn a pittance, work under very difficult conditions and have little to look forward to.
Uganda cannot afford to undermine this much sought after human resource that is so crucial to her survival. The Nurses Council must take immediate action.