. Dr Chilufya

By JOHNPAUL MPUNDU –
HEALTH Deputy Minister Chitalu Chilufya has urged newly graduated nurses to begin their careers with an attitude to serve people with humane hearts.
Dr Chilufya said nursing was a noble profession, where one handled abandoned and stressed patients who expect to be comforted and treated with utmost respect and courtesy.
He said this yesterday during the second private graduation ceremony of 155 nurses from Lusaka Nursing School (LNS), Lusaka Health Institute (LHI), Dovecot College (DC) and Makeni School of Nursing (MSN) in Lusaka.
“The most significant challenge that we are experiencing in the healthy sector, which has continued to call for change is the negative staff attitude.  I call upon all professional bodies and indeed all other professional organisations to confront the negative staff attitude which has continued to bring down the development of the country,” Dr Chilufya said.
He said Government was committed to fighting the disease-burden and as such it placed human resource development and management as a priority.
To achieve this, Government had ensured continued investment in training and infrastructure improvement.
LNS director Brighton Chellah said Zambia was failing to provide quality healthy services because many Zambian learning institutions lacked up-to-date facilities which included libraries and laboratories that could be used to upscale lessons to students.
He said this resulted in graduates failing to perform to the expected standards after graduating.
“Zambian learning institutions lack standard facilities which include libraries and labs that can be used to deliver quality lessons to students, resulting in many graduates failing to perform when they are sent out to provide services to society,” Mr Chellah said.