Nurses celebrate special day

Kaisa Rio, wife of state chief minister Neiphiu Rio on Thursday graced the ‘International Nurses’ Day’ celebration held at Naga Hospital Authority Kohima.
Paying tribute to all nurses on the special occasion, Kaisa said “nurses are angels in comfortable shoes” and that everyone was indebted to nurses directly or indirectly.
She said nursing was a God-given opportunity for them to serve God through mankind where Christian values play an integral part and the love and compassion shown by the nurses return in manifold.
Dwelling on the theme of the celebration “closing the gap: increasing access and equity”, Kaisa said the challenges nurses face have grown with the increase in professional scope and complexity. She however encouraged them by saying “the greater the challenge, the more fulfilling is the reward you get.”
Citing an example of Florence Nightingale who pioneered modern nursing, Kaisa urged nurses to impart important lessons from their life and serve with compassion and love.
Giving the thematic speech, Vikeyiekhole Kechü, principal tutor of School of Nursing NHAK, said the theme demonstrated the importance of social determinants of health, demonstrating how nurses can address these and in doing so, improve access and ensure equity in the care provided.
Sharing some barriers in meeting the theme, she said that shortage of nurses and other health human resources remain a huge barrier to appropriate access of health services.
Kechü urged nurses to work in partnership with patients, self care groups so as to ensure that both parties have access to appropriate information about health and its services. She asserted the need for nurses to be involved in policy development and have effective linkages with relevant stakeholders to help ensure resource allocation and availability of services.
To fulfill the challenges, she also stated that nursing education system should be regularly updated and implemented, in-service education of nurses be provided. Recruitment of more clinical nurse specialists or practitioners can help in effective service to patients, she added.
Songs were presented by senior nurses of NHAK, while Amongla, deputy director nursing lighted the ceremonial candle.
The programme was also attended by chairman of NKVIB, Dr. Nicky Kire, commissioner and secretary health and family welfare, Menukhol John, senior officials from the department, retired nurses besides nurses and well wishers.