Understanding The Role Of Nurses

I AM a registered nurse stationed at a clinic. My core service is to provide primary health care services to the community. Primary Health Care Services are basic health services that are made available to the community. Primary Health Care (PHC) services are affordable; they should be acceptable and accessible to the community at large.

These services are also preventitive, curative and rehabilitative. The goals of PHC can only be achieved through community participation and intersectoral approach.Elements of PHC includes health education, treatment of local endemic diseases, supply of essential drugs, maternal and child health or reproductive health, nutrition, treatment of minor illnesses, provision of safe water and sanitation, dental services, mental health care and rehabilitation services.The reason I am writing this letter is to inform the community as to how the clinic-based nurses operate and what services a rural based nurse can offer and their limitations. The Ministry of Health and Social services provides policies and operating guidelines, and written standard procedures that should guide the clinic-based nurses. These guidelines are important because they ensure clients /patient safety. The approach has many benefits such as consistency and uniformity.Good nurses will always stick to rules and regulations and will never experiment with the clients. There is no need to feel that one nurse prescribes more superior medicine than the other because all clinic nurses make use of Namibian guidelines. What can make a difference is the nurse’s attitude towards the clients. Small things such as good listening skills, respect for the clients, honest and fidelity will make a difference.There are some cases when some nurses are hated for promoting good health behaviour such as prohibiting smoking in public within the clinic facility, telling mothers not to use artificial teats with replacement feeding or the use of pacifiers and dummies. Some people can hate the clinic nurses for refusing to treat their pets with the medicines meant for humans. Some nurses are hated for refusing to give unnecessary injections to clientsBlessed are they who are hated for truth and promoting PHC.I want to inform the public that the only painkiller that is permitted and made available at a rural clinic is Paracetamol (Panado) and aspirin which is prescribed in certain conditions. Patients demand Ibuprofen, Indomethacin, Panamol injections etc but these are not made available at clinic level because experts consider them non essential medicine at the clinic and they can only be prescribed by doctors for the safety of the public.Medicines are supplied according to levels: Clinic, Health centre and hospitals. Clinics are supplied with essential basic medications to treat minor ailments and complicated cases are referred to hospital or will be attended to by visiting doctor who visits the clinic at least once per month. A good nurse is one who knows her limitation and refers cases beyond his or her scope of practice. It appears some clients, especially the elite or those who sometimes visit private doctors, expect to get the same medicine prescribed by their doctors from the state clinics and if nurses do not give those drugs then they are judged as having a knowledge deficit. Other people feel nurses are deliberately refusing medicines. Medicine like cough sedatives and expectorants are not clinic items and can be bought from shops or prepared at home.The public should not underestimate the knowledge of nurses. All nurses have done pharmacology for nurses and the community should have faith in their nurses and it is not needed to compare nurses with doctors because these are two different professions that are sometimes dependant, interdependent and independent from each other. The nurse stationed at the clinic will follow the standard guidelines when operating at clinic level irregardless of her/ his level of education, be it a certificate, diploma degree or PHD nurse.Please do not confuse male nurses for doctors and female doctors for nurses. It is incorrect to address male nurses as doctors!Finally I wish to inform the public that a nurse cares for the patient and the doctor cares for the disease. The nurse is not subservient to a doctor. Nursing is an autonomous profession. I would like to know the views of the public via my e-mail address 264812264480@mtcmobile.com.naJoseph PamuliVia e-mail