On Jacintha Saldanha

One of the things I really want to blog about is the radio prank incident with Jacintha Saldanha. For those not in the know, Jacintha Saldanha was a nurse working at the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for sever morning sickness. She answered a prank phone call from two Australian DJ’s impersonating the Queen and Prince Charles, and she put them through to the nurse on duty caring for the Duchess of Cambridge. She was soon found dead, apparently having committed suicide.
As a nursing student, hearing stories like this shakes me. Not even knowing that Saldanha would take her own life, these radio personalities put a woman’s name, her reputation, and her livelihood at risk for the sake of getting cheap laughs. It scares me that there are people who believe there is nothing wrong – even worse, people who think there is something amusing – about playing pranks on the people charged with providing care to the sick in a hospital.
As a nursing student, we are taught to never forget that patients and their families are human – that part of our job is to care for our patients holistically, and that includes showing concern for their families. At heart, I truly believe that Jacintha Saldanha was a woman doing her job – the family of one of her patients was inquiring about the patient’s well-being. Was it perhaps a mistake not to be so careful? It may have been. But to make a mistake that errs on the side of caring, and be rewarded with humiliation is part of what hardens nurses to people’s needs. The idea in the back of their heads that caring is not appreciated detracts from the quality of care they are able to provide, because their guard is up higher than it should be.
Nurses and other members of the healthcare team are asked to remember that their patients are human. Whose job is it to remind everyone else to remember that nurses are human too?