Nursing is a gesture of love
JOB Ndeulita Shalongo-Shange is a qualified registered nurse and a nurse educator, working for the Ministry of Health and Social Services. He works as a primary health care registered nurse at Onangolo Clinic in Enhana District in the Ohangwena region.
Shalongo-Shange, well-known among his peers, joined the public service in January 2018 as a registered nurse, attached to the Windhoek Central Hospital’s intensive care unit. In 2020, he became the first Covid-19 volunteer nurse and trainer.
In 2022, he joined the primary health care division, attached to maternal health, children and adolescents. He is currently the focal nurse for Antenatal care, postnatal, mother and child follow-up, responsible for educating mothers on the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, use of condoms during pregnancy and breastfeeding, PREP use and encouraging those who tested HIV positive on treatment.
He is also responsible for immunisation for babies and children under five years as well as family planning and baby spacing counselling at Onangolo clinic.
“I love nursing; it is a gesture of love for which no money can compensate,” he said.
Upbringing
Shalongo-Shange, a dedicated and selfless registered nurse, was born in Windhoek and raised in the north. He matriculated in 2010 at Haimbili Haufiku SSS in the Ohangwena region. The outspoken Ndeulita tried his luck in the corporate world, which landed in one rejection after the other before landing a scholarship with the MOHSS to fulfil his dream of becoming a professional registered nurse.
When asked why he opted to join the government, Shalongo-Shange does not shy away from the fact that working for the State comes with attractive perks that can be enticing for anyone.
“Of course, the government, as an employer, promotes people and affords them opportunities for growth via scholarships and bursaries – but as I alluded, I am passionate about primary health care, and that is what attracted me to public health.
Working for the government was my dream, as I always wanted to work in a profession that was versatile, unpredictable and full of diverse challenges. Nursing fulfilled these desires. It is not just a profession but a life calling with so many professional and personal potentials,” ShalongoShange said. He, however, admits that the title of a nurse comes with a lot of responsibilities. “If you wish to take up a calling in nursing, you need to be selfless, passionate about health and love people.”
The moment you put on that uniform, patients and the staff expect you to have knowledge and capacity. They also expect you to give them the best possible care. Being a professional nurse means patients in your care must be able to trust you, and that you must be updated with the best practices. It means treating patients and colleagues with dignity, kindness, respect and compassion,” he said.
Accomplishment
When asked to note down some of his professional success stories, ShalongoShange had this to say, “I am proud to be the first State nurse to admit the first Covid-19 diagnosed patient in Namibia. I was officially going on leave that day, and I can still recall it like yesterday when I received a call from the head of the Covid-19 unit to admit our first-ever State patient on 19 March 2020,” he said.
Narrating his story, ShalongoShange said it was around 17h00 when he admitted the patient to a Covid-19 isolation ward, and he had to stay with the patient until the next day when more nurses were brought on board.
Being at the forefront of Covid-19 nurses’ volunteerism, Shalongo-Shange was awarded a Hobart recognition in 2021 on the Namibia Nation Hero’s Day by MTC. Shalongo-Shange also became one of the first Covid-19 nurse trainers, providing capacity building on Covid-19 to other nurses in the Erongo region.
Challenges
There is no job without challenges – and for Shalongo-Shange, the key issue facing the nursing industry and the profession at large is the establishment of many new nursing schools to avoid overcrowding the clinical setting, especially for those students who are coming to the hospital or clinic for practice and clinical rotation.
“This puts more pressure and strain on qualified nurses and the clinical setting facility to accommodate more than the number of required students for training, which compromises the quality of training and practice in the same vein, compromising the individualised patient care approach.”
The other challenge is to learn how valuable it is to be an adaptable person as we continue to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic as the frontline by adopting the mindset and just blooming where you are planted in this dynamic career.
Wishlist
The youthful Kauazunda already has it that the government will be his retirement home. On his bucket list, he said he is looking forward to training nurses with a very positive outlook on how better the healthcare system of Namibia should be.
“I am looking forward to training nurses in the future who understand technology, social media and country politics because these are the three critical aspects that play a big role in people’s health – and if we have nurses who understand that, we cannot underestimate one’s health and leave them untreated. I am looking forward to being a pioneer of nursing in Namibia and to being one of the nursing theories writers.
“I have published a lot of nursing articles as the head of a nursing journal, and I use my Facebook platform to continue inspiring and educating people on different topics about health and how to live a happy healthy lifestyle in a world of many diseases.”