Professional caretakers: New batch of nursing students takes oath at Kharadar hospital

The school holds a lamp lighting ceremony each year for future nurses.

KARACHI:

Thirty-two girls stood with their hands risen, carrying lamps, as they took oath for becoming a nurse at Kharadar General Hospital (KGH).

The hospital’s School of Nursing (SON) held its seventh annual lamp lighting ceremony on Thursday to boost the morale of the new batch of nursing students enrolled in the programme. The school began in 2005 while the midwifery school was set up in 2007, according to its principal Talat Bhatti.

“You’ll do far more than we do,” said Dr Abdul Ghaffar Billo, who is the chairman of the hospital.  “A doctor takes only five minutes to diagnose a patient while the nurses have to take care of them 24 hours.

Around 50 students are enrolled at the SON each year – 25 each for general nursing and midwifery, according to the chief executive officer, Dr Khalid Iqbal. The main aim of the hospital was to become a teaching and research facility and serve the community, especially those living at the peripheries of Lyari and Kharadar.

The admissions, however, are very competitive. The number of students enrolled in the school is around one-fourth of those who apply for the programme. To apply, the student should have completed her matric in science with at least 50 per cent marks. After the applications are submitted, the candidates are interviewed and those who pass get three months to prepare for the admission test. For those who can’t afford the fee, the school offers a monthly stipend in exchange for two years of their service after the students graduate.

While sharing the future plans of the SON, Dr Bashir Mohammad Jan, also the president of KGH, said that the next step was to start a bachelors degree programme in nursing, besides the diploma course they already offered. Principal Bhatti pointed out that they were waiting for the approval by Karachi University and Pakistan Nursing Council.

Dr Jan seemed quite content with the performance of nurses and students. He narrated an incident told to him by one of the patients’ attendants about how nurse had cheered up the patient with her sunny disposition. Jan announced that once the bachelors programmer begins, the gold medalist of the diploma programme will be rewarded with a scholarship to the bachelors degree programme.

The hospital also aims to become a full-fledged teaching facility for technicians, said Dr Jan. The management plans to set up a technical-training institute to train and produce medical technicians.

“Technicians, just like nurses, are in high demand not just in Pakistan but all over the world,” he said. “It should ideally be an evening school and should train 50 students each year.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2012.