Exposed: How male patients harass nurses at KNH

On Monday nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital downed their tools to protest against the incident that occurred at the facility on Saturday.

A nurse who was on duty on Saturday was attacked to unconsciousness by a woman said to be a relative to a deceased 17 year old male patient who passed away at around 4:00 am on the fateful day.

The attacked nurse has hence been admitted in the facility’s intensive care unit (ICU).

The nurses while on a protest on Monday however narrated how male patients have been sexually harassing them.

According to the details gathered by one of the local dailies, the nurses singled out the orthopedic ward as the most notorious over harassment.

From verbalized threats of intent, sexual assault, grabbing and shoving, the female nurses’ encounters in the wards are saddening.

“They tell me to my face that they want to sleep with me,” a nurse was quoted.

One nurse narrated how a patient precisely described her undergarments including the colour after apparently peeping beneath her clothes as she attended to other patients.

The orthopaedic ward was described by one of the nurses as abnormal and where unusual things happen.

Reports indicate that there are no security guards on the sixth floor where the ward is located.

Some patients allegedly manage to sneak beer and drugs at night into the ward that hosts patients with musculoskeletal system problems.

In a Statement sent out following the attack on the nurse, Nursing Council of Kenya CEO Edna Tallam stated that health professionals give their best and thus must be respected and protected.

There have been strained relationship between KNH and its nurses over security incidents such as the alleged murder of a cancer patient by nurses in 2017.

In March 2018, a brain surgery that was performed on the wrong patient led to trading of blames between the nurses, doctors and the hospital’s management.

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