With the power of a smile and kind words, compassionate nurses can turn a life around [1]
Thursday, May 31, 2012 - 22:04. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Photos by Linny Folau
Too often we underestimate the small acts of caring that have the potential to turn a life around, Tonga's former Minister of Health, Lord Tangi, told an International Conference for Tongan Nurses that opened yesterday in Nuku'alofa.
Over 100 nurses from throughout Tongatapu and the outer islands, with 20 from New Zealand and 15 from Australia, including health experts as speakers, are attending the two-day meeting from May 31 to June 1.
Lord Tangi, the guest of honour, thanked the nurses for their selfless service, devotion and sacrifice. "I am a just surgeon who cannot do anything in the operating theatre without the nurses," he said.
"We must never forget we were trained with compassion and driven by compassion and this has been our strength over the years. We need to care more for the individual patients rather than specific diseases or specific features of their diseases. Because too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, kind words, a listening ear and an honest compliment all of which are small acts of caring that have the potential to turn a life around."
The theme of the conference is "Caring is the essence of practice for better health outcome".
Non-communicable diseases
He said in Tonga the main health problem for some years now had been non-communicable diseases and they had started groundwork programs to try and prevent and control NCDs, but more work was needed.
He said he was looking at a proposal by Dr Toakase Fakakovikaetau and the Chief Nursing Officer at Vaiola Hospital Sela Paasi to set up an NCD section of nurses within the nurses division and in community health projects.
"It is a good plan to put health specialists in the community to look for patients with NCD complications like high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer of breast, as early detection is the hallmark of managing NCD problems.
"This is strengthening our primary health care service, and this is the way to go because people must have the ownership of keeping themselves and their own family healthy and we to help, advise and support them in their journey," he said.
Nurses
Professor Mary Chiarella from the University of Sydney, said the conference helped to recognize the vital role nurses play in the world and in Tonga.
Sela Paasi, the Chief Nursing Officer and President of the Tonga Nurses Association was happy that the conference would discuss the important issue of caring. "It provides Tongan nurses a platform to exchange experiences and ideas on how to improve our work. The outcome is to promote caring through practices in our roles as nurses, wherever we are in the world," she said.
The Tonga Nurses from Australia, were led by the President 'Ana Lolohea, a nurse in the Emergency Department at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney, accompanied by Lu'isa Ma'ilei Latukefu of Canberra from the Tongan Nurses Association Advisory Committee in Australia. The delegation from New Zealand is led by 'Eseta Finau, the President of the Tonga Nurses Association of New Zealand.
The nurses will discuss "Nurse led Primary Health Care - a Global Perspective" presented by Professor Mary; "Caring without literacy is care without passion" presented by Professor Sitaleki Finau a medical adviser to the Tonga Nurses Association of New Zealand and 'Eseta Finau; "Nursing and Spirituality" presented by 'Ana Lolohea; "Mental Health Care is Everybody's business" presented by Kevin Kellehear, a lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney; and "Aiming High for Tonga meeting the Health Development Goals" presented by Sela Paasi.
The nurses conference is held every two years, the first was in 2010.