This week, I found myself thinking about heroes. Not the caped kind, but the unsung, low-key heroes who walk hospital corridors everyday with mops and buckets – the orderlies & porters.
On Monday, during my book review session for “The Patient Advocacy Guide”, I had a thought which led to a conversation that’s worth sharing: In Nigerian teaching hospitals, orderlies and porters are de facto patient advocates. They’re the invisible infrastructure of healthcare, bridging gaps between patients, medical staff, and our somewhat complex Nigerian healthcare system.
Think about it.
An orderly knows more about a patient’s day-to-day experience than most clinicians. They see the struggles, hear the unspoken stories, and often become the first line of emotional support. Yet, they’ve never been formally recognised or appreciated as patient advocates.
This realization is precisely why we’re building patient.ng – to formalize and amplify these grassroots advocacy efforts from least expected voices.
Speaking of amplified voices, we’re launching Campaigns next week – a feature upgrade on www.patient.ng that transforms passive community engagement into active patient support. Users can now launch advocacy initiatives and gain support through Green-Heart likes. It’s more than a leaderboard; it’s a mechanism to quantify community solidarity.
Imagine a platform where a patient’s campaign for help with expensive drug prescriptions, life-saving medications, emergency surgical treatment or rare disease awareness can climb rankings based on community support. Where each Green-Heart is not just a digital interaction, but a pledge of solidarity and advocacy!
On the education front of my current role, I’m currently managing postgraduate research for over 200 students in Life Science disciplines – spanning Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical Technology, and Digital Transformation. It’s fascinating to witness the intersections of these domains, with each students’ dissertation bringing a unique perspective on how emerging trends with technology and AI advances can reshape the global healthcare and life science industry.
Our iPatient podcast is taking shape too. We’ve started collecting patient stories – raw, unfiltered narratives that will form the backbone of our advocacy work. These aren’t just stories; they’re building blocks in our mission to transform patient experiences in Nigeria.
Sometimes, transformation doesn’t look like one big sudden change. Sometimes, it looks like recognizing the advocacy efforts already happening in our hospitals and local communities. It looks like giving a voice to those who have been speaking all along, just without the right microphone.
What does advocacy mean to you? Have you ever benefited from real patient advocacy? I’d love to hear your stories!
P.S:
The orderlies and Porters – they’re the real MVPs. And we’re just getting started in recognizing them and the stories they share!
