CS calls for empathy on patients as State sorts pay

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has pleaded with medics to prioritise compassion for the sick as the government sorts out their grievances.

Speaking during the launch of the Nursing Council of Kenya’s Strategic Plan 2023-2027, which seeks to define the direction nursing, and midwifery regulation is taking, she assured health care workers that the government was committed to address their demands.

“We are in a tight fiscal space, the infrastructure may not be as good, we may not pay them as much as they want but there is need to sacrifice for this country as good citizens,” she said when the Council also was recognised for the ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management System (QMS) Certification.

She reflected on the delivery of healthcare services in the past where medical practitioners first gave their lives for the patients  rather than personal gain.

“In the 1970s, they worked tirelessly as doctors, and at that time the motivation to work as a healthcare worker was purely based on the outcome of patients.

“However, we now exist in different times where motivation has not been pinpointed on the patient outcome,” she said, citing the Council’s mission, vision, and values through which employees’ performance reviews and appraisals, learning and development and recognition are based on.

Nakhumicha urged healthcare workers to provide the services first as times were financially difficult. She noted that this situation is temporary.

“I am calling upon colleagues that even as you demand equal pay for equal work done, meet your end of bargain first,” she said, bearing in mind that this appeal is not going to settle well with the healthcare workers.

Last week, nurses through the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) called for fair remuneration.

However, the CS insisted that the conversation had already started on how to take care of them.

“I know nurses will not be happy about this but let’s do what’s expected of us first, and this is not to ask for too much,” she said.

Nursing a calling

The Council’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Edna Tallam weighed in on the issue concurring with the CS that nursing remains to be a calling, because they work 24 hours seven days a week, and are even more alert during emergencies.

“As we are all aware that during the Covid-19 the way nurses were involved in every emergency in the hospitals, visiting people in their homes says more about the profession,” she said.

She highlighted the fact that looking at the nurse’s duties, there is no pay that is enough for this group of healthcare workers. “So this is the kind of discipline we are asking of them that there is no pay that is enough for nurses in measurement of their work, leaving their families to work long hours; delivering services during holidays, weekends, at night and during emergencies. “It’s that discipline of sacrifice we are asking them to nurture in their work output,” Tallam said.

Nakhumicha said the Council’s strategy will enable and support nurses and midwives to work to their full potential to achieve the government’s Universal Healthcare agenda.

“I am pleased to assure you that my Ministry will work tirelessly with the Council to regulate and support our nursing and midwifery professions to transform the way health actions are organised and how health care is delivered,” the CS said.