Voices #13 - The voices of nurses

Giving the voice to nurses is the way to improve health care.

International Nurses' Day was last week, but we just had a small ceremony for the nurses and a lunch today. The event was organized by the nursing administrator at the hospital and the Japanese volunteer nurse, and it was really quite a fun day. The nurses from each service put together skits or led songs that they had written on the roll of nurses.

Like most hospitals in the world, the nurses are the key to quality of care. They are the people who are closest to the patients and the families and tell the doctors when there's a dangerous change in the patient condition. They are the people who comfort a bereaved family or are the closest when something wonderful happens - the birth of a child or the results of a successful treatment.

We've been doing quite a bit of training to support nurses. During this past year, we've been supporting the province hospital level nurses to go to the districts to lead training activities. This has both improved the confidence of the province nurses to be trainers, but also it provides cost-effective training for staff in the district hospitals.