Nursing and Clinical Administration Services

Nursing and Clinical Administration services at Kibong’oto Infectious Diseases Hospital have been in existence since time immemorial during the Colonial Period geared towards ensuring nursing care given is aimed at promoting the healing of patients who had undergone treatment through chest surgery. The nursing interventions were purely wound dressing, ensuring patients get good food, bed rest time is observed and fresh air circulation within the patient’s environment maintained, as well as sunbathing. Beside,s the nurses also presumed the responsibility of the caretakers of patients because the majority of the patients were deserted by relatives and families due to phobia of the TB disease and stigma in the community. Hence psychological and social aspects of patients rested on the shoulders of Nurses. Rehabilitation in terms of exercise was also part of the nursing care given to such patients. Following the discovery of anti-TB drugs thus streptomycin in 1946 nurses furthermore played an instrumental role in forming the backbone of treatment involving injectable regimens. As the treatment methodology shifts from time to time with scientific discovery, the art of nursing care approaches in TB treatment and Management also inclined to the very drift. Thus, the nursing services at KIDH have evolved from ensuring ventilation, exercise, and good food provision to incorporating the entire Nursing care approaches built on the Nursing Process not limited to Nursing care Assessment, Nursing care Diagnosis, Nursing care intervention plans, nursing care plan implementation, and finally evaluation. In the process, the Nursing Services and Clinical Administration Directorate has developed to become an excellent hub for the care of patients with infectious diseases including multidrug resistance tuberculosis in the country. Nurses have played a vital role in the mentorship of various healthcare personnel in the entire country as far as patients in the continuation phase at decentralized centers are concerned. The presence of nurses in the era of MDR-TB has led to an 80% cure rate among MDR-TB patients admitted and discharged from the Hospital. The beginning of acquiring this excellence was with the dedication of Kibong’oto as the center of excellence in the treatment and management of MDR-TB in 2009. As the Hospital is transforming to become an institute, the Nursing Services and Clinical Directorate categorically has four main operational arms: Clinical Nursing Housekeeping and Laundry, Theatre and Sterilization, Social Welfare, and Nutrition. Going forward, the Directorate is focusing on capacity building on implementation research in areas of critical concern to ensure scientific evidence in patient care approaches is inculcated into the nursing care frameworks. On the other note, the directorate is endeavoring to strengthen the social welfare approaches to reduce the psychosocial constraints that hinder adherence to care prescriptions and to enable easy integration of the admitted patients back into the community. Nonetheless, the nutritional aspects of patients are paramount in determining the patient’s prognosis while in care at KIDH as well as in the continuation. With that in mind, the directorate has undertaken the initiative to build the capacity of Nutrition Officers to be able to prepare therapeutic food for malnourished patients.