CNA Celebrates across Cameroon!
By Francis Ekongang Nzante.
This year’s celebration of the International Nurse’s
Day has been celebrated across Cameroon by the Cameroon Nurse’s Association and
other Associations of Nurses with an unprecedented degree of engagement. The
seriousness of the occasion enveloped nurses in Douala, Bamenda, Buea and a
couple of hospitals across the national triangle. This annual celebration which
takes place on the 12th of May was spiced with Workshops, Talks and Symposiums.
In Bamenda in the North West Region of the country,
celebrations were organised by the Regional Bureau of the Cameroon Nurse’s Association.
This reporter caught up with the
National President of this Association Mr Nkwain Joseph who summed up the event in the following words;
“The International Nurse’s Day is celebrated every year on the 12th
of May and it commemorates the birth of Florence Nightingale who is the founder
of Nursing. Every year there’s a theme which is chosen by the International
Council of Nurses. This year’s theme is Nurses: A voice to lead.- Invest in Nursing
and Respect Rights to Secure Global Health. As far as the Cameroon Nurse’s
Association is concerned, the activities are carried out at the level of the
branches and at the level of the hospitals. At the Nkwen District Hospital in
Bamenda activities were carried out and this included the handing of gifts by
the Nurses to all the patients. The Regional Hospital in Bamenda also did so
just like the CBC Health Services amongst others.” 
Nurses distributing gifts
He called upon Nurses to work well irrespective of
where they found themselves reminding them that Nursing was a vocation. He
hammered on the necessity for Nurses to continue building themselves
professionally through continuous education. “This year's theme touches on the
need for governments to pay more attention to Nursing and to invest much more
in the sector. There’s a general shortage of nurses in the world. Actually it
is estimated that there’s a shortage of 5.900.000 nurses in the world and that 85%
of this gap is in low and medium income countries. So we need more investment
in Nursing so that when these nurses graduate they should be gainfully employed”
he said.
He appreciated the efforts being put in by the
government pointing to the fact that many training Institutions had been
established and that the government has been permanently following up training
in these Institutions to make sure that nurses are adequately trained.
Meantime the National President of the Cameroon
Nursing Association accompanied by the Vice National President Dr Nguini Rose visited
some training Institutions like the Florence Nightingale Higher Institute of
Health and Biomedical Sciences where talks were dished out to students of
Nursing.
This reporter also caught up with the General
Supervisor of the Nkwen District Hospital in Bamenda Mrs Abang Theresia Adu who
presented the nurse as the main force behind the smooth functioning of the
hospital.
 |
| GS, Director , Staff rep. at Nkwen District Hospital |
“Today the nurses came
in appropriately dressed for the occasion and we bought some gifts which we
distributed to the patients of the hospital. We sang and danced through the
hospital sharing the gifts. In every unit in the hospital where we stopped, we
talked to the patients on what they should expect from the nurses and how they
should collaborate with the nurses to make sure that work went on well” Mrs
Abang said.
She further called on the patients to forgive them
for any wrong thing that any nurse might have committed through the year and reminded
them that they were the eyes of nurses in the hospital and that corrections
from them could only help the nurse to get better. She thanked the Director of
the hospital for providing a very enabling environment for good work.
“No one can fully pay for the services of a nurse
but when you tender good services, you receive your pay from God” she said.
The Staff representative of the hospital Mrs Tela Elizabeth said she spent some time
sensitising nurses about the International Nurse’s Day since she realized that
many of them didn’t actually Know what the day was all about. She equally
explained the deep meaning of the theme of this year’s International Nurse’s
Day. “It is a day during which nurses come out to tell the world that they are
there to take care of them
and to remind them like the General Supervisor said,
that it is the nurse who opens the eyes of the baby in the labour room and
closes the person's eyes when he is exiting.”
In the Douala CNA branch, activities which took
place at the Alpha Higher Institute of Biomedical and Technical Sciences at
Deido included Symposiums, Scientific Presentations, Debates, Awards and
Recognitions. These activities were coordinated by the Littoral Branch
President Mr Otongno Humphrey.
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