“I enjoy helping people. From home, that’s my nature. I don’t get angry easily.”
Those were the words of 28-year-old Miss Sakina Umar Sa’id, who volunteers her services to the General Hospital Ganye in Adamawa state for free.
She told me that she joined the profession because right from the onset, she loves helping people.
I met Miss Sa’id at the hospital when I took a relative to the General Hospital Ganye, where she was admitted at the Female Medical Ward.
There in the ward was the young nurse, who apparently knew what she was doing.
A young Registered Nurse, who was diligent, meticulous and professional in her field of calling.
Sakina daily spends about eight to ten hours caring for about 30 plus patients on admission, both in the Female Medical and Surgical Wards of the hospital.
She never stopped to rest for a good five minutes without someone calling on her to come and attend to them.
Single-handedly, she manages those on admission with smiles on her face and never a word of aggression coming from her mouth, despite how difficult some patient relatives can sometimes be.
Later on, I got to know that she was a volunteer Registered Nurse.
Miss Sakina Umar Sa’id graduated from the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Jalingo, Taraba State in November 2021.
She decided after graduation to volunteer to work for free at the General Hospital Ganye, being an indigene and the fact that the nursing profession entails practical work.
So, instead of staying and waiting for a government job or any other job at that, she took the decision to work for free so as not to forget the skills she learnt in school.
Miss Sa’id said after graduation and securing the certificate and license of practice, she approached the management of the General Hospital, Ganye, with the proposal to assist them for free and by January 2022, she was allowed to start helping out.
She was on the job since then for free, until September, when the Principal Medical Officer at the General Hospital opted to be paying her N15,000 monthly.
After that, Sakina manages many patients a day, with those on admission sometimes reaching up to 30 patients in the medical and surgical Female Wards.
She said she discovered that because of lack of manpower, where nurses and midwives retire or secure transfers to other places, she was then enlisted to be running shifts, which she wasn’t doing initially.
Now Sakina runs shifts like the regular workers at the hospital.
Educational Background
Miss Sakina Umar Sa’id attended Federal Government College Staff Nursery and Primary School, Ganye and still went to the Federal Government College, Ganye for her secondary school and afterwards went for a Remedial Study at the Taraba State University and thereafter wrote the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Examination.
She, however, did not get the required points for admission, moreover, the course she wanted to study, BSC Nursing was not being offered by the school.
So, she switched to the College of Nursing and Midwifery, since it was nearby, where she obtained the Certificate in Nursing.
Sakina intends to further her studies while maintaining her profession of calling, Nursing and believes the man she intends to marry will agree to let her further her studies.
Challenges
Miss Sa’id said she faced challenges growing up as a girl in Northern Nigeria, because she and her parents were criticized for allowing her to go to school, instead of getting married.
She, however, highlights that girl-child education is very important and encourages girls in this part of the country to pursue education and an educationally driven career for that matter, so as to take care of their parents later on in life, especially when they grow old.
“The world we are in right now, girl-child education is very, very important. Don’t stand and look at them suffer. Since you have the strength and you cannot help them. When they are older and they begin to face challenges, without you lifting a hand to help them. So, it’s better you stand. Let them say whatever they want to say.” Sakina said.
Sakina’s Parents
Sakina grew up in a small Nigerian family, where three of them were raised by civil servant parents, who understood the importance of educating a girl-child.
She said both her father and mother invested in her education and never spared their resources to ensure she reached her career goals.
Sakina says she was a happy child, because growing up amidst her two siblings, made their parents to give them adequate attention.
She recalled that she followed her mother to work, where her mother worked as a Radio Operator at the Local Government Secretariat.
Sakina said she was also well-loved by all her teachers, even as a carefree child who played a lot and did not bother about the restrictions put in place, yet she tops her class every time.
Sakina calls on parents in Northern Nigeria to encourage their daughters to acquire an education, at least to secure a secondary school education, saying without an education, subsequently, when the girl marries, her children will end up having serious problems in the future.
She equally calls on girls to listen to the voice of their parents and go to school and close their ears to descending voices of distractors on the wayside.
In a situation where parents object to their girls going to school, Sakina urges the girls to find someone who would make the parents to understand the importance of educating the girl child and convince them to go to school.
She equally calls on the Adamawa State Government to, as a matter of urgency, employ more nurses, midwives and auxiliary staff to manage the patients, who are too many for one person to manage.
“From all angles, particularly in Adamawa State. Seriously, they are lacking staff. At General Hospital Ganye, you can see that only one staff managing over 30 patients and all of them need your attention. This one will come with complaint, this one will come with complaint. Seriously, they need staff. So, I am pleading, Adamawa State Government and please, the General Hospital Ganye needs staff. They are lacking manpower.”
She believes there is enough manpower on ground for the government to employ and fill the vacuum created by transfers and retirements.
As to whether re-hiring retired nurses and midwives was a good idea, she said most of the retired personnel were already tired and needed the rest, but that it would be okay for those who would voluntarily wish to be re-engaged on contract.
Sakina made an attempt in September when the government of Adamawa State issued a circular for the employment of nurses and midwives and she filled out the form.
She, however, said no interview was conducted and neither were they informed of any development until she started hearing and seeing others getting messages on their phones to come and collect appointment letters.
Sakina did not push for her to be employed, because the man she intended to marry is from a different state, and she wouldn’t want to start looking for a transfer when she gets married.
PIAK
