Respect nurses, Museveni tells public

Kampala. The Commissioner for Nursing in the Ministry of Health, Ms Petua Kiboko, has said the quality of nursing in the country has slackened because of bad attitude towards the profession and the quality of training.
“We have challenges with the disease burden, limited skills. We have limited funding and bad attitude towards the profession which need to be addressed as well as developing policy guidelines for training,” Ms Kiboko said at the closure of a two-day nurses conference on the future of nursing education on Wednesday in Kampala.
While addressing the conference, the president of Uganda National Academy of Sciences, Prof Frederick Kayanja said President Museveni has asked the public to stop despising nurses and said their value is only felt at the verge of someone’s death.
He said the President had told him to inform the participants that he is committed to improving welfare of nurses.
“I was privileged to speak to President Museveni this afternoon and he asked me to inform you that only when you lay on the bed helpless, that is when you understand the importance of the nurse,” Prof Kayanja said.
Meanwhile the President on Thursday met Silvestros Maximos Kisitu, the new Orthodox Bishop of Gulu, Eastern Uganda Diocese at State House Entebbe.
The president assured the Orthodox Church in Uganda that he will support their initiatives to link up with partners globally with a view to enhancing the sharing of the socio-economic investment benefits.
He also asked the faith-based groups to cultivate the culture of exposure to international languages as a way of linking up with their partners in other countries in order to ensure maximum sharing in the socio-economic investment benefits.
“Train young people in other languages, such as Russian, so that there is a linkage to the other world to enrich relations and investment opportunities..,” the President said.