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“We practically live with our patients and share the small details of their lives; this is one privilege that nursing bestows on us”

9 Mar 2020
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Yemen
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Interview with Raida , 31, who works as a nurse in MSF's nurse, mother and child hospital in Taiz Houban. Raida's hometown is Mowza’, Taiz governorate.

Q: What led you to join MSF in Yemen?

“I started working as a nurse in MSF’s Mother and Child hospital in March 2016, so I’ve spent almost four years and two months here.

I studied nursing and attained a diploma after three years, then I started working in a private hospital for one year before the war broke out.

When the war came, I had to stop working as a nurse for nine months. Then I applied for a job in this hospital and was accepted.”

Why did you have to stop work?

“Because of this war. The hospital I was working in was located close to a frontline. It was close to the ‘republican palace’ and was hit in the fighting, so the hospital had to halt activities. So I went back to my village where I started a different profession: tailoring. I missed being a nurse and longed for the day when I could go back to it.”

“I didn’t choose this profession, but it was when I started practising the actual duties of a nurse that I fell in love with my work.”

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Q: Why nursing?

“I love this profession because it provides the opportunity to live with people, share in their lives and try to help alleviate their suffering. I feel that through this job I am providing a service to my people and to my country.

I didn’t choose this profession. My sister pushed me into studying nursing. I actually enrolled in three different institutes, but I left each one. I didn’t know what nursing meant, and I feared what I didn’t know.

My sister saw how useful it would be to have a nurse in the family; if someone fell ill and needed immediate medical attention, I’d be there with the skills to respond quickly.

It was when I started practicing the actual duties of a nurse that I fell in love with my work. It wasn’t as difficult as it had seemed to me before, and I felt that the job would contribute to society as well as to my self-development.”

Q: What motiviates you to come to work every day?

“When the war broke out, my younger sister was still studying to become a lab specialist. We were paying fees of US$1,000 since it was a private institution. As the war escalated, we were no longer able to afford her education, so she had to drop out of university and stay at home. She often cried because she wanted to pursue her studies. It was frustrating to know what she wanted but not be able to do anything to help.

When I got the job with MSF, I was able to pay for her education. I was so happy that she could resume her studies. I could also afford to pay for the education of my other sister, who has done a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

We are a family of 10 girls and one boy. My father was unemployed and unable to find a job, and my brother’s work as a mechanic could barely cover school fees for the girls in that house.”

“After I left the hospital that day I couldn’t get to sleep. All I could think about was the patient, and the image of her and her baby in that room kept playing on my mind.”

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Q: Is there a patient who stays in your mind?

“It was almost six months ago – I remember that day clearly as it had a great effect on me. I was on night duty, which ends at 7 am. At around 6.30 am, a pregnant woman was rushed into the hospital. She was taken straight to the delivery room as she was about to give birth, but she was bleeding heavily. [After she gave birth] the doctors and anaesthesiologists all tried to stop the bleeding, but with no success. Then they called in the nursing team.

The sight of the weak mother and the newborn baby crying in the cot was emotionally draining. They couldn’t take her into the operating theatre as, after all that bleeding, it was too late to save her. The patient died. It was a terribly sad day for everyone in that room and for everyone in the hospital.

After I left the hospital that day, I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was the patient, and the image of her and her baby in that room kept playing on my mind.

The incident affected us for three whole months. The fact that her health deteriorated in front of us, and that we did all that we could do but still felt helpless... this feeling stays with us to this day.”

Q: How has the war affected your life?

“I haven’t seen my parents for two years now. To be able to see them, I’d have to make a very lengthy and exhausting journey. From my village to Houban, it used to take us four hours by car before the war; nowadays it would mean spending two days on the road. The various checkpoints and road blocks and the bumpy roads mean it’s a difficult trip to make.

I promised my parents that I would see them early this year. I told them: ‘2020 will be the year’ – but I haven’t been able to fulfill my promise yet. I will try to see them at Eid, God willing.”

Interveiw with Marwa, 29, works as a nurse in mother, child and child hospital, Taiz Houban. Marwa's hometown is Hayfan, Taiz governorate.

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Q: Why Houban?

“I’ve been living in Houban since I was in fifth grade at school. My father was working as a teacher in a school here and he moved the entire family from Taiz city centre to Houban to be closer to him.

I studied at Taiz University for four years and attained a bachelor’s degree in nursing. After graduating seven years ago, I started work immediately in Yemen International hospital. After a year I became pregnant and stopped work to take care of my child, while waiting for the right job to appear. When MSF announced it had a vacancy for a nurse, I applied and, thanks be to God, was accepted into the family.”

Q: How has your life changed since the war started?

“Prior to the war, we were all living together as one family and my husband’s work was in Taiz. Because of the war, we suffered a forced separation as my husband travelled to Aden for a tempting job opportunity after many shops and businesses in Taiz were forced to close. Now, every two or three months he visits and stays for a week or two and then returns to Aden.”

Q: How did you choose nursing as a profession?

“We practically live with our patients and share the small details of their lives; this is one privilege that nursing bestows on you.”

“I didn’t like the idea of nursing at first – I wanted to study medicine instead. But when I took the exam to study medicine, I didn’t pass. My father insisted that my siblings and I study a branch of medicine and remain in the health field. That’s when I decided to sit for the nursing exam and this time I passed – as if it was meant to be. Today, I owe my father thanks for insisting that I choose this field of work.

Despite the fact that nursing is a tiring profession, I love this job. The work is humanitarian in nature, and at the end of the day you feel your conscience is at ease, because you have contributed in one small way or another to alleviating people’s distress, or have even saved lives. This profession brings you closer to people. We spend a lot of time with patients, probably even more than doctors do. We practically live with our patients and share the small details of their lives. This is one privilege that nursing bestows on you.

When you see an adult or a child in pain and you are able to help take away that pain, that’s a wonderful feeling. When you see improvements in the health of people you are taking care of – like when a baby starts to breastfeed after days of crying in pain – that’s a wonderful feeling too. Sometimes I come to work with feelings of pure excitement, thinking: ‘Will I see my patients from yesterday still in bed, or will they have improved and been discharged?’ I feel joy when I discover that a patient’s health has improved significantly and they have been discharged from hospital. That’s the fruit of our hard work.

“As a nurse, my role does not end when I LEAVE the hospital”

My role as a nurse does not end when I leave the hospital; it follows me around wherever I go. When I’m home after a long day at work, if one of the neighbour’s children is sick, they immediately run to me. They see me as the doctor of the neighborhood. I often hear a knock on my door at night, especially if a child is ill. I have never turned anyone away, because I know that I can help them.

“The war has had an impact on THE STABILITY OF every Yemeni household, whether rich or poor. Yemenis feel fear even inside their own homes.”

“The war has had an impact on THE STABILITY OF every Yemeni household, whether rich or poor. Yemenis feel fear even inside their own homes.”

The war has changed our lives. I used to live with my husband and two children under one roof – as a normal family should. We were settled and led a stable life. But the war drove him to another city to earn enough to support our family. It is very painful to be separated physically. My two daughters ask about him constantly and wish they were with him.

Earlier in the war, my husband could visit us easily, as transport was easy to find between Aden and Houban. But under the current conditions, he is forced to take different routes, less safe and a lot longer, which drives fear into my heart every time he decides to visit us. The route that used to take two hours now takes seven hours, as you get stopped at checkpoints along the way. There have been times when he couldn’t reach us at all because he discovered half-way that the road was closed because of fighting. He had to turn around and go back to Aden so as not to risk his life. We have lost the sense of stability. I believe war has had an impact on the stability of every Yemeni household, whether rich or poor. Yemenis feel fear even inside their own homes.”

Q: Is there a patient who stays in your mind?

“The death of an adult or child always affects me sincerely. I believe it’s the hardest feeling anyone could ever experience. Working in this hospital as a nurse, I have come across such situations, as the number of patients we receive in the hospital is high, and the difficulties they face to reach us make complications more likely to occur. Sometimes babies arrive dead at our hospital and it is difficult to accept it. Maybe because I am a mother too, it touches me deeply.

It is hard to deal with the pain of losing your child, and we have to be there to console the mother and ease her pain afterwards, if we can. We try to help her live with this pain, to come to terms with her loss. We share her suffering and her grief. This is the hardest part of our work.”

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