Global Primary Care

Global Primary Care was the proud sponsor of International Nursing Day activities at Maluti Adventist Hospital and Motebang Hospital in Leribe. We received the following message about the festivities:”On behalf of the Nursing staff at Maluti Adventist Hospital and Leribe Government Hospital, I would like to express my sincerest and warmest gratitude for the donations made by Global Primary Care and for the nursing supplies donated by BMC staff members.

The celebration at Maluti Hospital on Tuesday, May 13th began with inspirational speeches made by several nurse leaders at Maluti and a distinguished member of the LNA, Me’ Lepaka, PNO Motholomi Hospital. Some of the memorable quotes include: “[Nursing] is not an easy environment, nobody said it would be, but we continue to do it anyway…” and “If Florence Nightingale were to come back now to Lesotho- she would have a fit! And indeed she would!” The nurses then marched through Mapoteng to Tiping Village where the village chief held a pitso. Health talks were given, and nurses checked blood pressures and blood sugars. Nurses delivered donated supplies to home care patients and performed bed baths on bed ridden patients. After the nurses marched back to the Hospital, a braai commenced with tons of food, music and dancing. The donated nursing supplies were raffled off and the stethoscopes were a huge hit.

Leribe Hospital nursing staff members began the day with a march that circled the town and ended up at a ‘health’ tent on the hospital campus. Several encouraging and motivating speeches were made but, the most memorable was Dr. Obi’s, who remarked: “The nurses’ day celebration is a very big occasion worldwide. It is supposed to be a national holiday to stress the importance of this day but, unfortunately we cannot afford that luxury because of the nature of the nurse’s job. If all the nurses take one day off to celebrate their day, the whole health care delivery services will ground to a halt and that will turn the celebration into a day of mourning. That is why this occasion is celebrated in a low key way -to avoid a national disaster. On the other hand if all the doctors, pharmacists, or lab personnel take one day holiday to celebrate their day, work will still go on. This shows that nurses are the single most important group of professionals in the health care delivery system worldwide.”

After the speeches, patients received blood pressure and blood sugar checks, HIV testing and counseling, and TB screening. Nurses then joined together in a lunch which was shared with most staff members. The raffle again was a huge sensation, with nurse’s cheering and singing with every item that was given out!”<br /><br /><br /><br />