I found my life’s purpose in nursing – Kikonyogo

Born in 1998, Kikonyogo, the firstborn of two, grew up in Nabweru North, Nansana, in Wakiso district. His mother, who is his inspiration, is a nurse. 

“I grew up watching my mother treating the community around us and I felt the urge to become a nurse. In 1995, before I was born, she opened a drug shop in the neighbourhood, which is still operating today. That small business has been the mainstay of our family,” says the 26-year-old.

Until his Primary Seven, Kikonyogo was the only child of his parents. Much as he admired his mother, he says he was not good at the science subject at the primary level in Mugwanya Preparatory School, Kabojja.

“Deep down inside me, I was a bit hesitant because even though I wanted to be like my mother, I still thought nursing was a woman’s job. I understood that I would be labeled a weak man. I thought of all the jobs I could do, but the environment at home influenced me,” he says.

Kikonyogo finally made the decision to become a nurse when he was in Senior Three.

“After I completed Senior Four, I applied to St Francis Nsambya (Nsambya Hospital Training School) and I was offered a place to study a certificate course. I was an entertainment minister and the other students loved me. This made my studies easier because I had people I could request to explain what I did not understand in class. I am still in touch with the people who mentored me at that level,” he says.  

However, after graduating, finding a job was not easy, even with the recommendation letter from the school in his hand. 

“Experience is a vital part of this profession,” Kikonyogo says, adding, “Once someone has completed school, he has to practice and gain work experience before he can be advance to a higher level of education. However, to enter a workplace (health unit) you have to have a working license, which makes it difficult for those who have just come out of school, especially if they do not have social connections,” he says. 

After failing to find a position in a hospital, Kikonyogo got a job in a pharmacy to pass the two years of experience he needed. In his second year of working, he decided to apply to study a diploma in nursing.  

“I quit working in the pharmacy in 2022 to give myself time to concentrate on my studies. I soon realised, though, that I needed money for tuition. My friend, Ramathan Lugoloobi, who was my junior in school, was already working at Ruby Hospital. He helped me get a gig here,” he says.

The knowledge of medicine he acquired while working the pharmacy gave him a competitive edge. Now, with his salary from the hospital, he is comfortably pursuing his dream of acquiring a diploma in nursing.

Working as a nurse
Patients have rights and they are entitled to certain expectations about their caregivers. Kikonyogo says one of the most important rights of a patient is the right to information about the disease they are suffering from.

“The first lesson I learnt was that my conversations with a patient are confidential and I cannot utter out what they tell me. I have noticed that most patients do not know that they have a right to refuse a drug or an injection if they feel uncomfortable with its effects. So, I have to inform them of their rights so that they can decide for themselves,” he says. 

He adds that respect for every patient, no matter their age, size, tribe, or colour is fundamental and builds confidence between the caregiver and the patient. 

“There are those hard moments when I witness the suffering of children with carcinomas (cancers). As a professional who knows the prognosis, you can tell that there will be no life in the next five years. Watching those parents toiling to pay the huge bills to make sure their children live breaks my heart,” he laments. 

Sometimes, when the patients ask hard questions, Kikonyogo finds himself fighting with his conscience.

“For example, most parents think sickle cell is a curable disease. They keep asking if their child will survive. These situations have also helped me reflect on what to look out for in a partner, so that my children do not suffer,” he says. 

The challenges
Some specialties in the nursing profession are discriminatory to men, according to Kikonyogo. 

“The maternity wing does not need male nurses. It is all about women – delivering mothers and midwives. I feel isolated about that, but that is what our professional code of conduct states,” he says. 

However, Kikonyogo has delivered three babies in his career at Ruby Hospital. 

“They were emergency cases and I was the one on duty. But I found that for those deliveries, creating rapport with the expecting mother was vital in making them trust me. And they always felt joy once the baby was delivered. In fact, from that moment, they treat you as their baby’s ‘doctor,’” he says. 

For Kikonyogo, the worst experience in his career happened in 2017, when he lost a patient during a medical evacuation.

“We were transferring a patient to a referral hospital and the ambulance was hit by a taxi. We lost the patient. I was the only male medical professional inside the ambulance at the time and I was asked so many questions. In my profession, a nurse is not allowed to declare a death, so it was a very challenging time for me,” he recalls.

The long working hours a nurse has to put in while on call is also a challenge. 

How society perceives him 
Because society assumes nursing is a profession gazatted for people who identify as women, sometimes Kikonyogo finds it hard to tell people how he earns his living.

“People look at male nurses as people who failed to get the grades to study medicine. They think going for nursing was the only option we had. This makes it hard for some male nurses to associate with their profession in public,”

When he attends his friends’ public functions or parties, they always introduce him as a doctor because they cannot comprehend that a man can be a nurse, and because of the medical advice he gives them.

However, Kikonyogo proudly declares that this is a profession he would recommend to other young men to take up.

“The long hours can break you but, in the end, it is a rewarding profession. I can now pay my family’s bills and pay the tuition of my young sister who is in Senior Two. There are offices in this country I would not have entered if I was not a nurse to some influential people,” he says.

He adds that there is nothing that boosts his moral than when he watches a patient gets belter with each passing day.

What others say
According to Ramathan Lugoloobi, the head of nurses at Ruby Hospital, male nurses put more effort into their work than female nurses. This is because when the patients return for review, they always ask for the specific male nurses who worked on them. 

“We always collect views and feedback from our clients and they tell us that the male nurses have a better attitude towards patients, compared to female nurses. Sometimes, clients can be harsh to male nurses, especially when we prick a child twice or thrice with an injection when looking for a vein. But we explain to them what we are doing and they calm down,” he says.  

The hospital has 35 nurses, ten of whom are male. 
“Some female patients prefer Kikonyogo for procedures such as, cathetarisation. However, we always make sure there is a relative or female nurse in the room while he is performing the procedure. He is a hardworking nurse who is willing to learn,” Lugoloobi says.  

Urinary catheterisation is a procedure used to drain the bladder, through a flexible tube called a catheter. It is inserted into the patient by doctors or nurses at a hospital.

However, Annet Birungi, the secretary general of Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union, says male nurses are helpful in certain things, but still have failings. 

“They do not like cleaning the workstation after carrying out a procedure. They think it is the job of female nurses to clean up after them and that is a perception they get from their homes. You find that after injecting a patient, a male nurse will leave the gloves on the table because he is not used performing thorough cleaning. We are struggling with them in that area,” she says.

She however, admits that patients prefer to be worked on by male nurses, who they assume are doctors. 

“When male and female nurses go to work on a patient as a team, the former get more respect than the latter. Definitely, men are muscular and are very handy when it comes to turning patients on the bed. That is why they tend to work more on night duty,” she says.

Birungi adds that in her experience, most male nurses are living in denial. 

“Most of them want to be doctors but they failed to get the required marks. That is why they branched into nursing. It tortures them so much. They are in denial,” she postures. 

The rise in the number of male nurses, though, shows the evolving nature of gender roles and breaking down of stereotypes that should be embraced. 

“I have a number of friends who qualified as nurses but are now in other professions because they lacked the connections and support to work in health units. Male nurses are the backbone of the health sector and they should be supported. At the end of the day, I am the doctor’s eye,” Kikonyogo says.

Indeed, men bring unique perspectives and skills to patient care and this means both women and men should be encouraged to join the noble nursing profession.

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