During my training as a student nurse, I contracted the Chicken Pox disease days after nursing an infected patient. We had just ended our mandatory student clinical practice and I was taken ill with fever and some rashes on my body, with which I was later diagnosed as a case. I traced the source of the ailment to the middle aged man because he was the only one I nursed with that condition and as a novice in the field, did not make good use of the universal precautions necessary to prevent cross infection at the tine. Well, maybe I did not fully comprehend the importance of infection prevention, thank God it was not a lethal disease, I would have been history by now.
Seclusion procedures were poor at the time as the ward was almost always overcrowded and there was no room to separate very infectious patients.
Fortunately, for my other four roommates, non of them was infected (they were scared to the bone though…Lol). I had to write the end of semester exams in pain anyway but fortunately, I recovered in no time (I still have some scars, lol).
My experience has been the case of some health workers and students over the years. Health workers risk their health everyday whiles seeking to treat those in need of professional care. As was the case with the Ebola outbreak, some health workers lost their lives with the outbreak of the COVID-19 in China due to infection.
Nevertheless we have sworn an oath to save lives even in the face of poor conditions of service (especially for nurses who are always at the frontline of care).
A simple advice to health workers in this time of panic…
Please do well to help your patients to recover and remember to pay attention to protocols especially on infection prevention.
Don’t think you are special (the virus knows you not) and don’t try to be a superhero. You have families too and they need you to arrive home healthy.
However, swiftly managing the cases as of now, will prevent an outbreak, so the panic situation currently existing isn’t a helpful stance as of now. The rest of the nation depends on you to stop this infection breaking out of seclusion and too much fear is not the way to go.
More than ever, we need you focused, strong and alive to continue keeping us healthy.
As for the students ‘dier’, we know you want to show off small but cut down on the selfies and learn proper hand washing techniques, it helps a lot…Plus, always seek supervision from superiors before taking some very risky steps in the ward.
More than ever, we need the support of the public as well. When you arrive at the hospital with an illness, do well to protect yourself and the health worker from infection:
Please cover your nose whiles coughing or sneezing, wash your hands regularly with soap and water, use alcohol based hand sanitizers regularly, avoid touching your face and shaking hands indiscriminately and best of all, seek professional care when taken ill suddenly with strange symptoms….Let’s all be careful.
I salute you all, health workforce of Ghana.
Yours truly,
Eric (Makafui) Blewusi
(Nurse/Public Health Professional)
