“I was the first man to step outside my tribal village to study. Fighting all the odds -from listening to taunts, to having no transport facility- I managed to survive and earned a degree in Community Health Nursing.
I was born and brought up in Eppalapalli Thanda in Nagarkurnool district in a poor tribal family. I moved to Hyderabad when I was 8 years old. The health issues faced by the people in my village, inclined me towards becoming a doctor. However, the financial crisis at home did not allow me to live my dream. Instead, I pursued my interest in Nursing and got into the field of Medical-Surgical Nursing. I always had the calling to serve people.
In my 9 years of working as an orthopedic nurse, I have been a part of close to 2000 operations. Some patients treat us well, while some don’t even value our services. They think of nurses as bedside supervisors.
I remember treating an elderly man few years ago – the patient was all alone and it was a major operation. Both his sons were settled in Australia and they couldn’t come to the hospital. At that time, I was with him for one week and took care of him like my own father. The operation was successful and he was discharged after ten days. While leaving, he burst into tears and hugged me. He told me that even his own sons didn’t bother about his health as much as I did. It shook me. He even offered me money, which I politely rejected.
One must understand that nurses are the lungs of the health sector and without them no hospital can survive. It is hard for nursing practitioners to work in an environment where there is no respect and teamwork. Sometimes, we do not even get paid well.
To address such problems of healthcare workers, I started the Nursing Officers Association in 2017. Ever since, we have relentlessly been working on the issues of nursing community in the state and taking them forward to the government.
When people hear the term nurses, they generally think of women. However, there are men in nursing too. We are trying our best to create equal opportunities for all nurses.
This COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how much the healthcare sector is in need. On the occasion of International Nurses Day tomorrow, my only request to the government is to provide more employment opportunities to healthcare workers and increase the standard of the healthcare facilities, so we can serve people better. We will all fight this together and emerge stronger than ever!”
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