The Periscope reporter
The Patient Services Assistants (PSAs) with the Federal Medical Centre, FMC Yola, Adamawa State, Northeast Nigeria were honourably received Wednesday, by the management of the hospital, they went to register their appreciation.
Mrs Cecelia K Augustine was the leader of the group, granted the permission, she said she was standing for the Patient Services Assistants transfered from the State Specialist HospitalYola – with the establishment of the FMC – who were not promoted for nearly three decades, until when the current Medical Director, Prof Auwal Muhammad Abubakar broke for them the chain of stagnation that would have terminated their service carrier at just CONHESS 3 salary scale, to be accessing miserable amount as pension.
In healthcare setting, a Patient Services Assistant, also known as a Ward Assistant, or Nurse Assistant or Healthcare Assistant or Wardsperson or Hospital Orderlies or Ward Orderley or simply Orderley, is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions to patients in a hospital by ensuring wards are neat and tidy, lifting and turning patients and transporting them in wheelchairs or on movable beds and providing direct care and support.
The highest role of an orderly is that of an operations assistant.
Augustine said, the MD it was, who opened the window for capacity development programmes for them to have additional certificates to enable them to be promoted to the Health Assistant cardre from the hitherto Ward Orderleys.
This, Augustine said, served to them as great expectation as much as the executive reception when they only visited to register their appreciation.
Augustine explained that they earlier went to book for the appointment but the MD was engaged in Abuja, they were told, then they decided to go to the Deputy Director, Nursing who is the Head of Nursing Services Department for which the Orderleys belonged, the Director Administration and the Head of Clinical Services to register their appreciation.
The group in appreciation, also commemorating the promotion, hitherto not to be contemplated, prayed that Almighty Allah should keep on showering favours and blessings to the Medical Director with his management team.
The group prayed for the Almighty Allah to continue to serve as shield to the Medical Director, against every forms of sabotage nurtured by hypocrisy and conspiracy with its attendant complex complicity, completely.
There is more to these prayers, especially observed by this category of staff who served for more than three decades.
Responding, the Medical Director thanked them for the visit purposely to register their appreciation.
Prof Auwal has commended them for being the first, as a group, to pay such a visit, where he said that he was not unaware of the selfless services they rendered to patients with patience.
The group’s contribution to keeping the wards neat and tidy was also acknowledged.
In their separate goodwill messages, the Director Administration, Alh Aliyu Mohammed Nayejo, the Deputy Director Nursing, Haj. Fadimatu Umar and the Secretary to the Medical Director, Mr. Ahmadu Umaru commended the group for the critical thinking and urged them to consider the promotion as a motivation and as a challenge to do more for the continued promotion till retirement.
Prof Muhammad Manga, a Medical Microbiologist with the Federal Teaching Hospital, FTH Gombe and Deputy Provost, Medical College, Gombe State University, among other outstanding positions of responsibility, said that he has had additional experience with the appreciation reception and promotion commemoration, adding that he was highly impressed with the entire exercise that has depicted compliance of the management to her staff welfare, the gratefulness on the side of the staff and the spirit of team work, while rendering healthcare delivery services in FMC Yola.
Prof Manga has called on the group to extend the appreciation by putting more efforts to patient care with patience.
Dr Yahaya Muhammad, is a Lecturer and Honorary Consultant, Clinical Microbiologist, and Parasitology, College of Health Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto; in his goodwill message, he urged the group to reciprocate the gesture by putting more efforts to quality service delivery, making analogy with John F. Kennedy’s “for of those to whom much is given much is required.” And the Bible [Luke 12:48] “for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required”.
Muhammad commended Prof Auwal for the effective and efficient leadership, for dedication and selfless service and for being a worthy mentor.
The Consultant Microbiologist said that he and Prof Manga were both students of Prof Auwal, enough to know and say how lucky FMC Yola is to have him as Medical Director.
