“As student nurses, when educational realities do not meet up with your learning expectations, what do you do?”
Have I not seen young nurses like my self here in Nigeria who are seriously starved of preceptorship or mentorship? Here, the larger population of Nurses are made up of nurses who I like to call “obsolete thinkers!” They do not understand the language of improvement, so they make life difficult for us who desire to grow and develop!
As we struggle through, trying to secure understanding of what the nursing profession in Nigeria is really all about, some of us are lost in this everyday search for purpose, many give up on their dreams, some who are able to leave the country do so as an escape from all these.
Young nurses who just stepped into the profession need serious guidance. A lot of them do not understand the world of nursing! They leave school with various malformed ideas about what nursing really is. Their interaction with older nurses who have refused to improve [The Obsolete Thinkers], puts more strain on their already abused faith in the profession.
Any profession that does not take the welfare of its young professionals serious will soon begin to see obvious cracks in the future.
In Nigeria, it takes extra dedication to keep your nursing dreams alive. They are a whole lot of factors out there that are ever ready to make you regret your pure decision to become a Nurse, they mock your sincere motives!
It’s a different ball game when we talk about developed countries where the profession has it’s maximum recognition and respect, this respect and recognition accorded to nurses and nursing in developed countries is enough to inspire any young registered nurse to reach within and give their best to the profession.
In Nigeria, we have to work hard to keep our dreams alive. The government is not doing much to help us, they are occupied with other things, yes, we have a government so occupied that it can not give adequate recognition to the folks who work harder to keep the people healthy!
Many young nurses in Nigeria do not really understand what they are doing in the Nursing profession and the major cause of this confusion is the lack of mentorship or better call it preceptorship, the latter gives it more details and concrete definition.
There’s a whole lot I would desperately love to say, but this first part only tries to introduce a wider, deeper and more detailed discuss. In this series, I will try as much as I can to be respectful in the way I write, but that notwithstanding, the truth will be said!
I will angrily call out our older nurses, especially the “obsolete thinkers,” Who have refused to flow with the current that modern nursing creates from it’s laboratory, these lot hang on to archaic ideologies created in the age when nursing in Nigeria was not recognised, a period where nurses were seen as subservient, a lesser profession as compared to other medical professions.
Our friends in other parts of the world can also share in our plight as we work together to make sure the essence of the nursing profession is preserved in Nigeria.
Join me as I unravel, share discuss and point out to us all the areas we need to give attention to. Though my discuss will revolve round mentorship, I will once in a while digress a bit as I delve into other related themes.
Yours,
Ayinla Daniel. RN.
Photo Credits: Daniel Frank @ unsplash &
Hoshino Ai. @unsplash.
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