Nurses and Midwives are the cornerstone of our health systems, providing skilled and compassionate care and leadership in our health facilities and the community where we leave.
Heroes Day offers us a renewed opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the remarkable works of heroic men and women in building our motherland Rwanda.
Heroism is one of the Rwandan cultural values. Nurses and Midwives in Rwanda have been true to this guiding principle. Today as we celebrate our national heroes, let us reflect and give thanks to nurses, midwives and other healthcare providers who work at the frontline in the fight against the COVID – 19 Pandemic. Over 15,304 has so far tested positive to the corona virus among whom over 60 are nurses and midwives.
Nurses and Midwives have an immediate and direct contact with patients on a day-to-day basis both in the community and the hospital setting. When we say that nurses are at the frontline, they really are. But nurses are also part of the entire health journey with our patients, their care – takers and families. Nurses are an integral part of the team that provides care across all our health settings. It is very much a team approach to looking after our community. Nurses and midwives are working in clinical situations where access to essential equipment is limited; they have been exposed to heavy COVID‐19 viral loads and have worked long hours, in some instances, and with low nurse to patient ratios. Nurses and Midwives have had to up skill and develop new ways of working, 60 nurses and midwives have tested positive to COVID-19 but have responded to the pandemic with resounding maturity, responsiveness, and agility, and perhaps for this reason they are our HEROES.
As the country battles COVID-19, people continue to get sick from other illnesses, pregnant mothers seek antenatal care and give birth. Despite of the fact that over stretched and many working longer hours, they are unreservedly providing health care to the people and ensuring that there is no health crisis or gap as a result of the pandemic.
During the Rwanda’s 1990 liberation struggle and 1994 genocide against Tutsi, a cross section of nurses and midwives exhibited tremendous heroism. They not only treated their fellow combatant’s country liberators but also treated suffering people of genocide blown humanitarian crisis and in the same time offering antenatal care to Rwandans.
