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Nurses body told to make palliative care specialised service

Palliative care nurses with Prof Anne Merriman (seated centre), an advocate for palliative care and Ms Agnes Bakku, the Commissioner for Nursing at the Health minister (wearing blue kitenge) after their graduation at Makerere University on January 14, 2025. PHOTO/STEPHEN OTAGE

What you need to know:

  • Certificate and diploma nurses who are trained in nurses training schools, cannot be recruited as palliative care nurses because it is a profession which is studied at a bachelor’s degree level and it gives the professionals wider knowledge of how to handle patients.

The Ministry of Health has asked the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council, to create structures which recognise palliative care nursing as a specialised medical service. 

Speaking on January 14 during a luncheon for the graduation of 33 palliative care nurses trained by Hospice Africa Uganda, Ms Agnes Bakku, the commissioner for nursing at the Ministry of Health, said there is need for palliative care to be aligned among, medical specialties, due to the shortage of specailised professionals. 

“The palliative nurses we have are not designated as palliative nurses, instead they are working as nurses. We cannot keep them as specialised in area of palliative care alone due to shortage of nurses and yet we have an increase in the number of people who psychological and physical need support due to chronic illnesses,” she said. 

Asked why palliative care should be treated as a specialised medical service, she said the certificate and diploma nurses who are trained in nurses training schools, cannot be recruited as palliative care nurses because it is a profession which is studied at a bachelor’s degree level and it gives the professionals wider knowledge of how to handle patients, but in the government structures currently, there is no provision for them. 

Asked why there is a shortage of palliative care nurses and what the service entails, Dr Ekiria Kikule the principal for Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care in Africa (IHPCA), said because of funding, many students do not apply for the course unless they sponsor themselves. 

She said even those who sponsor themselves are demotivated because many people associate palliative care with death and yet it is about managing symptoms for people with chronic illnesses such as HIV/Aids, cancer, diabetes, stroke before the patient gets bedridden. 

“When you are bedridden, that is the tail end. We make death natural. We want the family to talk to the patient until they make their final wish. When death is coming, people panic, we support the family that.  That is why we have branches in Hoima, Mbarara and Jinja and we are now moving into outreaches in informal urban settlements,” she said. On Tuesday, a total of 33 of the students at the 31-old institute, were among the graduands at Makerere University. 

This is the highest number of palliative care degree students in one year from the institute. The students were drawn from Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Swaziland, Cameroon and Zambia. 

A total of 17 got Master’s degrees while 16 got Bachelor’s degree. According to Dr Ekiria, the institute also trains palliative care nurses for Uganda Cancer Institute, which keeps sending them nurses for training to address the shortage gaps.

Training
Since it started delivering learning programmes in palliative care in 2003, the IHPCA has trained hundreds of doctors, nurses and health care professionals at different levels, some of whom are working in critical care facilities such as Mildmay Care Home, Kawempe Cancer Care Home, Hospice Jinja etc.