Before she thought of becoming a nurse, to face different challenges daily, Domingas Jacinto was already sure that her life would be dedicated to people looking for help to survive.
Seventeen years later, being profession of nursing, in the southern province of Inhambane, Domingas Jacinto has been focused on “taking care of people seeking help, I treat them with love.”
“I entered this profession without knowing how it functioned. But as I wanted immense to be a nurse, inspired by what I saw when I was younger, I knew how to fit in”, says Domingas, stressing that when she was a little girl, she used to be fascinated by nurses looking after other people.
Over time, the nurse became attached to the profession and gradually became comfortable with patients and “nowadays I get happy when I deal with patients. That’s what I trained for.”
For Domingas, the nurse has always been present and should continue to be present in the lives of patients and dedicate themselves hard to people’s well-being.
“The nurse is an entity requested by those who seek help to improve their health condition. The nurse, in this case, does his job with love and dedication, thinking only of the patients’ health.”
Domingas, instead of taking care of patients in general, she also dedicates herself to the birthing services, helping mothers to bringing their children to the world.
“Now, as a midwife, I have been taking care of the children and their mothers when they come to the birthing services. I do this with a lot of love”, she says.
In this journey, one of Domingas’ greatest concerns lies in the eradication of infant mortality, not only in Inhambane province, but throughout the country.
“This is the concern of many nurses who work in my sector. We want to see infant mortality minimized, just as we want health professionals to work in more humanized conditions,” she argued.
“There are mothers who arrive here in an already complicated state”
Domingas is deeply concerned with the parturient’ condition when they enter the Maxixe Health Center, stressing that there is a need to disseminating more awareness about the care that should be taken with pregnancy.
“Many mothers travel long distances to access the health center and arrive here already in a complicated state”, she said, adding that “patients from various parts of Inhambane have the Maxixe Health Center as a reference. So, they travel long distances.”
Many of these women, according to the nurse, make themselves to the health center in a complicated state that, little by little, worsens, especially when the delivery service starts at home.
According to the Statistical Yearbook, published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the average distance that residents travel to access health care went from 12.4 km in 2015 to 12.3 km in 2019.
This fact, for the Citizen Observatory for Health (OCS), shows that efforts should be made to build more hospital units in the country, so that the proximity of health services to the population is guaranteed.
“The construction of waiting houses for pregnant women was the most remarkable fact in my career”
During her journey of work as a midwife, Domingas got impressed when the Waiting House for Pregnant Women was created in the health centers of Inhambane. The house hosts women with pregnancies at risk, as well as women with difficulties in accessing health services.
“This has greatly changed our working system and improved the situation of pregnant women in Mozambique. This has been an added value for the entire national health system, mainly because the houses are close to the health units”, argues the professional.
The Waiting House for Pregnant Women is a tool that aims to improve the health of women and children, encouraging health professionals to promote management activities, assistance and community involvement in the area of maternal and child health.
“The quality of teaching has changed a lot and that worries us”
In recent times, her biggest concern has to do with the poor quality of teaching in institutions specialized in nursing teaching.
“I don’t know how, but we have poor teaching quality, which harms the national health system”, he said, stressing that “it is important to oversee the institutions that are emerging in the country.”
Domingas, for the improvement of the National Health System as a whole, also proposes the need to promote good habits among health professionals, starting with training, but also taking into account the improvement of the remuneration of the class.
“When I receive newly graduated nurses, I always try to help them so that they can better serve their patients. This is the only contribution I can give to the professionals who arrive here inexperienced”, she said.