Introduction
When I tell people I’m a Nurse Midwife, their responses are almost always the same You must be very financially comfortable, I simply smile, knowing fully well I was really struggling not just financially but mentally.
Source: My Gallery
Source: My Gallery
Reason behind studying Nursing
Just a little background
My Dad had a fatal road accident and he almost lost his life, but because of the way Nurses and Doctors took care of my Dad, and gave their all to make sure he survived, it made me realize it’s either medicine or nothing.
But faith had other plans and I studied Nursing instead,
The day I graduated i was the happiest girl on earth.
Struggles I faced in Benin
I graduated in 2023, and the very first hospital I worked at offered me 30 thousand naira, let’s just say a little above $15 in a month.
Yes, I worked 7 days straight and 2 days off, meaning I worked 26 days in a month and earned $15 a month, not per hour, not per week, for a whole 26 days.
How did I cope with the low pay??
I didn’t, I couldn’t, I still asked my parents for money.
I rented a 2-bedroom apartment with my friend, there were numerous bills to pay, electricity, waste, and transportation to work.
My transportation to work was approximately $1 per day, it was just as if I was working for free.
Luckily I got a job after 6 weeks of working there, not the “best” but better, I moved from earning $15 to $40 in a month.
I had to get another job that was paying me $25 a month, so I started juggling my $40 and $25 jobs in a month, and would end up with $70 in a whole month.
Just imagine working in two different hospitals, it was like hell, I was going from work to work, I only had a maximum of 2 off days in a month, that’s 2 days out of 30 days of not going to the hospital.
Relocation Story
I worked and struggled for a year in Benin alone, yeah, I juggled 2 jobs for one year, during that period I had just 24 off days in a year.
My Parents told me to relocate back to Oyo State, because at least I wouldn’t have to worry about house rent, and other bills involved, even with the fact that I was far away from home, my parents still sent foodstuffs to me.
Yes, they would waybill foodstuffs to be, I had no single savings for that one year, I was feeding hand to mouth.
I had to move to Ibadan where I believed nurses are paid more
But I was so wrong, I wish I had stayed back in Benin because Oyo state was not so good.
Source: My Gallery
Oyo State Relocation Working Experience
I moved to Ibadan in 2024 and got a job within a month.
I moved from spending $1 on transportation to spending $3 on transportation, my parents' house was far from the hospital, and I would have to wake up as early as 4am to prepare for work and the house at 6:30 am to meet up because work resumed by 7:30am
That was another great struggle, I just tried to endure for a year and got a job offer that came with accommodation with $35 salary per month.
Imagine a Nurse struggling so much financially, to be honest, I don’t think it was as bad as this in the past.
Because older Nurses working in Nigeria would say they built houses, bought a car, and raised their children with their nursing salary.
Well not anymore, I was single as at then, I had no child to pay school fees, no heavy responsibility, and couldn’t live comfortably, i wonder how Nurses with kids with responsibilities actually cope.
Toxic Hospital System
If it were just the extremely low pay, it would have been manageable, the hospitals I worked at when I was in Benin were fair, the workload wasn’t unbearable, and there were enough Nurses to work.
The first hospital I worked in Oyo state had 4 in 1 ward, let me explain;
Hospitals have various wards or units ranging from male wards, female wards, paediatric wards, labour wards, and so on.
I was managing 4 units at a time, the labour ward, antenatal clinic, postnatal ward, and special care baby unit.
Wild right??
You would think, Nurses should be many right? But that wasn’t the case, it’s usually 2 Nurses on day duty that’s during the day, and just 1 Nurse throughout the night
To their credit, the antenatal clinic doesn’t work at night.
So when I’m on night, I manage labour cases, postnatal patients, and babies on admission
Some of the babies might be on Oxygen, some on 2-hourly feeding, add all those responsibilities together on one Nurse throughout the night for 5 - 7 days night on a roll.
And that wasn’t all, there was a lot of pressure from hospital management about records, you must record;
- Any Patient admitted to the ward
- Any Patient discharged from the ward.
- Nurses were the ones who made the patient bill You must record the receipt number
- You must make sure a patient pays before being discharged, if not your salary will be used to pay
- Any hospital property that gets faulty while being used, the last Nurse to use it is responsible for replacing it, be it equipment, machine, or anything.
Can you imagine the kind of work pressure from managing a lot of patients alone while also being careful with hospital properties and also making sure patients' bills are being paid, all to be done by one Nurse
It moved from passion to constantly fighting for my life.
Experience with Patients
I mostly have communication skills and relationships with my patients, i see each client/ patient as myself so I love to give them the best care.
But some patients made it so hard to communicate, I experienced a few threats from patient relatives.
Because I was following the hospital rules about visiting time.
Beginning of health issues
At first, I thought I was strong till, my health started going sideways, I developed severe back and leg ache, and it got so bad that I started limping to work.
I developed severe gastric oesophageal reflux disease, read more about it
here
I started having palpitations, know more about it here and constant heartburn, check here for more.
I lost a lot of weight, I went from 54kg to 45kg
The moment I realized I had to put myself first was when I started falling sick, the hospital moved on, and I didn’t receive care from the hospital I worked for.
I resigned, decided to take care of myself and the thought of even going back to bedside nursing hasn’t crossed my mind.
I chose Nursing especially Midwifery to save lives but I ended up being the one who needed to be saved.
There are a lot of Nigerian Nurses leaving every day because of these same issues, that’s why a lot of Nurses are leaving the country and some are not practicing including myself.
Reference
And now I’m a content creator and a writer.
Thank you for reading my bedside nursing experience, i hope you treat Nurses around you a little bit kinder.