Enyonam Epiphania Sefenu shares her most challenging experiences as a Nurse

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Enyonam Epiphania Sefenu, a Ghanaian professional Nurse/Midwife, expresses her sadness amidst the Nurses and Midwives strike.

Having served for over 23 years, she discloses her monthly gross salary is not up to $1000.

Enyonam emphasizes the struggles of Nurses who suffer in silence, frequently using their salaries to support abandoned patients.

Read her lengthy post is below.

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SAD DAYS AS A GHANAIAN PROFESSIONAL NURSE/MIDWIFE

I have been very sad 😭 😢 😭 😢 for the past 16 days in this country called Ghana. And I ask myself, is it really worth sacrificing for the people as a technocrat? What crime have we committed to be a nurse or midwife?

I have worked as a professional nurse for 23 years+, and people see you and, if you are a nurse and own a house or a car, it’s your salary 🤦🏾‍♀️. No, it means either you are not in a purely government health facility or you do something aside your salaried work or you used a bank loan to acquire it. My gross salary for a month is not even $1000 equivalent, HOW?!

The so-called fuel allowance previously being given to the Principal Nursing Officer and above is ¢5 for 40 gallons. I am a master’s holder and adding another master’s (to help me teach better). I have a relative who has DBS from Poly and is taking 50 gallons of fuel every month at the prevailing market rate. What wrong have I done as a nurse or midwife to say at least what’s due me enhance it a little? I actually don’t care if someone is getting more than me, though, but don’t insult my intelligence, please.

As a staff nurse, I had to run a whole night duty alone without anyone, no shift colleague or orderly. I would struggle alone through the night. It was a painful period, and nothing could be done because there was no extra hand.

Nurses suffer in silence and hardly complain. We sometimes use our salaries to buy food for abandoned patients and even pay their bills. Same thing we, the Nursing and Midwifery Educators, do in our schools sometimes. Then, now it’s time to fight for what is due me as a nurse or midwife, which others are easily given, and you, who I have sacrificed for all these years, come on social media and the airwaves calling me names and tarnishing my image as a nurse or midwife. Really!

Doing work as a worker and doing work with passion are two different things. If you want people to give their all, don’t insult them. Nurses and midwives are one of the most intelligent and dynamic groups of people you can come across. We are trained to survive wherever we go. Whatever is available, you must use it to save someone’s life (improvise), which makes the work three or more times more difficult. It will only be an intelligent person who can be innovative in such situations.

At KNUST, we nurses had the same class with all the other health professionals in the first year (which was more of the basic sciences). You can go and ask for our records in those classes and see which of the programs did averagely better in those courses. In the hospital, the nurse or midwife is the pivot everything runs on (I don’t need to reiterate this).

We do more than we should. Yes, just like any normal group of humans, a few people do not know what they are doing. It doesn’t mean every nurse or midwife is like that.

And those towing party political lines, ayeekoo. The day I learnt ‘THE NURSES CREED’ in my first year, I knew I had to forgo any plans for party politics. Stop playing politics with my livelihood and insulting our intelligence.

Stop telling us we are essential workers when you are not showing us anything worthy of sacrificing for. If you want us to continue being your heroes and heroines, treat us as such.

Yes, you may not be able to pay us what we are really due (my fuel allowance alone for a month is more than 1/3 of my salary). Stop adding insults to our injury.

I weep 😭😭😭😭.

#GiveUsOurDue
#GRNMACoS
#IAmAProudNurse #CoSImplementionRoadmap #GiveUsAWorthySeed #SalarySeed #sacrifice #nurses #midwife #coachepi #eaglestribe 🤕💔😢👎💯

Source: SIRKENN.com