13 May 2011
Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali on Thursday urged the country’s nurses to eliminate from their ranks those whose bad behaviour brings the nursing profession into disrepute.
Speaking at a meeting with nurses in Maputo Central Hospital, held to mark International Nurses Day, Ali urged them not to be influenced by demands, some of them unjust, but to embrace the responsible work that has always characterized them in the past.
Today’s nurses were the inheritors of a proud tradition. Their predecessors, Ali said, “performed their mission with enormous difficulties and sacrifices. If there are Mozambicans who covered every corner of this country, it’s the nurses. They challenged colonialism and encouraged their children to commit themselves to the struggle”.
The Prime Minister urged the nurses to work together to overcome all obstacles and win back the esteem and respect they enjoyed from communities in the past.
Ali recognised that the Mozambican health service is under enormous pressure, and praised the selfless efforts of health workers who have stood up to all difficulties.
But he believed there “problems of lack of dialogue with the communities so that they feel part of the hospital. This is the great challenge imposed on all health professionals, and particularly on nurses”.
Ali said that Mozambique is still in a difficult situation, but there was light at the end of the tunnel and in the not too distant future the country would be able to stand on its own feet. “Everything depends on us”, he stressed. “We must persevere and never vacillate”.
He recognised that nurses, like teachers, work under difficult conditions – but refused to make any promises.
“What we must know is that compliance with our programme in the health sector is a priority”, the Prime Minister said. “Nurses are able to provide services in any corner of the country, and so we shall continue to work”.
AllAfrica – All the Time
View post:
PM Calls for "Responsible Work" From Nurses