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DENOSA urges nurses to record abnormalities maternity sections
Two midwives almost made scape-goats for shortage of staff at a Mamelodi facility
DENOSA Provincial Organiser in Gauteng, Thomas Chauke, reports that two midwives at a Mamelodi hospital in Pretoria won an internal disciplinary hearing of negligence recently where one of the 20 pregnant women they looked after got complications and died later. replica watches video
DENOSA urges all nurses and midwives/accoucheurs to record in every possible detail any abnormalities in their units, and take them up with nurse managers whenever such abnormalities occur. This will shield nurses against any malicious blame if it was not addressed by those in charge. In nursing, ‘if it is not recorded, it didn’t happen.’
“I’d like to urge all and nurses and midwives/accoucheurs at maternity sections to record everything that they observe, which in the end may come back to haunt them if they have not properly recorded such. At maternity, a midwife must look after one patient because of the seriousness of their condition,” says Thomas Chauke.
“If you look after more than one patient at maternity, you must know that you are already compromised and you are at a major risk of litigation, because two or more patients may become critical at the same time. This profession can only be defended by nurses themselves. Each and every nurse must find their inner voice and raise matters of abnormality with relevant authority objectively and without fear or favour,” advises Chauke.
In another incident, a nurse is facing a similar disciplinary action for admitting a patient and treating it on a wheelchair for two days when there was no bed available at the facility. She was then given third written warning. In appealing her case, DENOSA will defend this nurse to the hilt of the sword, because as nurses we can’t turn patients away from a health facility. This is the compromising position that nurses have come to be in because of a negative practice environment for health workers.
“Imagine what would have happened had the nurse turned away the patient, and something terrible happened to the patient while outside the facility? The nurses would have been in a similar situation. So, it looks like nurses are damned if they care for patients and, similarly, they are damned if they don’t due to unbearable conditions. Nurses must not be held liable for shortage of resources in facilities,” says Chauke.
DENOSA calls for filling of vacant positions in our facilities as a matter of urgency. Delay in filling of vacant positions results in unnecessary loss of patients’ lives and compromise of quality care that health workers provide.
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