Nurses should upgrade skills, aspire to grow

The 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results have offered a chance for thousands of students to think about what they intend to study in universities and colleges.

In advanced economies like the United Kingdom and the United States, students have the luxury to choose career paths in line with their passion. It is upon this premise that we were told, and undoubtedly 2023 KCSE students, that we can be anything we wish to be.

What that statement failed to mention is that anything we want to be does not have to be right after high school. It may not even be the first thing you become by studying for an undergraduate degree or a diploma.

Across Africa, choices for a first diploma or degree are made based on the marketability of the course and its earning potential. As nursing continues to be a highly marketable profession, therefore, students are stuck at a crossroads; do they take diplomas in medical colleges or do they go for degrees in various universities?

I have been a nurse for a considerable time now to strongly opine that every student that qualified for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, ought to head straight for it. I hear dissenting voices. I expect them. These dissenting voices emanate from a culture of devaluing the nursing profession enough to liken it to a useless extension of medicine.

Like an appendix, we do not know why it exists yet we hurt terribly when it is inflamed. Even without painting this canvas with the various branches of nursing that exist, even without dazzling you with the coruscating wide repertoire of career choices that nursing as a first degree presents, let us address the common roles we know nurses by, namely, working at the hospital. Nurses are active members of the healthcare team.

They spend 24/7 hours with the patient assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating various levels of patient care. Think about a patient in the intensive care unit. The nurse is constantly adjusting the ventilator settings, taking and interpreting blood results, assessing consciousness and its return, and planning for the extubation of a patient among other roles, independently. Given the complexity of these among other functions, a nurse must have a robust theoretical framework upon which they operate. Nursing is more than a manual job. It involves higher reasoning power.

Any human being desires the best healthcare they can achieve. It is at the heart of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As such, nobody wants to be stuck in a hospital with a nurse whose only response to your most pressing question is, “Let us wait for the doctor to answer.” It feels like Christmas without gifts.

 A kiss without tongue. Anticlimactic. You want a nurse who can question orders, prioritise, delegate, and still hold your hand as you navigate the disease process and wellness. In a nutshell, you and I want an informed nurse to take care of us and our loved ones.

This underpins the indisputable fact that nurses need comprehensive education. Diplomas are great and I am happy to state that I started my nursing education at a diploma level. However, they are not the end. All nurses wishing to practice even more efficiently should aspire to upgrade their education.

Ms Maina is a UK and Kenya-registered nephrology nurse. @catemimi1772