Mariella Furrer Photography

Feature Stories: Nurse Shortage, Malawi

An exodus of nurses from Malawi to Europe or to NGOs is causing a serious strain on the public health sector. The nursing staffs of public health systems across the poor countries of Africa — grossly insufficient to begin with — are being battered by numerous factors that include attrition and AIDS. But none are creating greater anxiety in Africa than the growing flight of nurses discouraged by low pay and grueling conditions. May 2004

Parents wait with their children to be admitted to the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
   
Elsie Mambala , an enrolled nurse, tends to children at the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
  
The maternity ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
     
  
Women wait at the maternity ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
   
Hlalapi Kunkeyani, a registered nurse in charge of the maternity ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe tends to a mother and her new born baby. May 2004
  
A new born baby is tended to at the maternity ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
     
  
Pirirani Moses, 20yrs old, and her new born baby boy (her first child) two hours after his birth. The maternity ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
  
Beatrice Mkandawine, a registered nurse, feeds a month old baby boy suffering from Hirschprungs disease ( a disease of the colon) through a nasal tube. The high dependecy unit of the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. The boy was admitted to hospital on May 13, 2004 and was operated on and given a temporary colostamy. May 2004
  
Pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
     
  
Mothers feed their new born babies at the nursery of the Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
   
Agnes Masina, a student auxilliary nurse attends to children before they are admitted to the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
  
Exhausted after child birth, women lie in bed beneath mosquito nets in the post-natal ward at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
     
  
Women sit outside the gynaecology ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
  
Lesnad Chatambalala , a registered nurse and widow with four children, reads a medical report of a new arrival on the night shift. The patient, a young girl, who was in labour for a long time and was referred by another medical facility so that she could undergo a C-section. The maternity ward, Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
   
Women tend to their babies at the nursery in The Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe. May 2004
     
  
The high dependecy unit of the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
  
A young boy (almost 2yrs old) at the high dependecy unit of the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. The boy was admitted to the hospital on May 16, 2004 suffering from cynotic heart disease, pneumonia and anaemia. May 2004
  
Elsie Mambala , an enrolled nurse, tends to children in the treatment room of the pediatrics ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004
     
  
Tandu Mbvundula, a registered nurse and widow, does the rounds of the gynaecological ward at the Lilongwe Central Hospital. May 2004.