The dairy game: NIGHT DUTY BLACKOUT. [15-07-2026]

^{after the gen}

‎It was exactly 10:01 PM when everything went dark. I was on night duty at the Paediatric Medical Ward, Teaching Hospital Yola, Adamawa. This was my 3rd night shift for final year as a student nurse and I thought I was ready for anything.

I was wrong.

The light was gone. And worse, the generator didn’t come on. normally the other wards when nepa took light, solar sustain or generator before nepa bring back again. No light. No generator. No backup, the solar was not sufficient for all the ward In a paediatric ward.

My heart dropped. We had 18 children on admission that night. Some on oxygen, some on IV drips, some just are calm and some are not. How do we monitor them in total darkness? The senior nurse on duty, Nurse fatima and her assistant joy, didn’t panic. Fatima just said calmly, "we had to use torchlight" .

We started moving. Phone torches came out. patients reative brought out their phone lights too. The whole ward turned into shadows and flickering lights.

‎

At 10:10pm, one baby on oxygen had to be replaced to an oxygen cylinder because her condition started worsening due to lack of proper oxygen supply as there was no light for the oxygen concentrator to work. we had to carry the big cylinder to near her and connect it, it wasn't easy.

i was assigned to monitor 5 paediatric as i was not the only student nurse, we were 4, so i had to monitor their vital signs, administer medication, feed those on 2 hourly feeding. it was very stressful, i had to do it for 10:12pm with phone touch light.

10:32 PM - Generator finally coughed to life. The lights came back. People felt happy. one of my colleagues clapped and shouted nepa.
I almost cried. Not from fear, but from relief. By 8am when my shift ended, I was exhausted. My eyes hurt. My back hurt. But all 18 children were stable.

What this taught me

Being a nurse in Nigeria is not just about drugs and injections. It’s about problem solving in darkness. It’s about staying calm when systems fail you. We need better backup. These are children. But tonight, teamwork saved us.

To anyone reading this:

pray for us. And to my fellow student nurses, we are stronger than we think. Thank you for reading my diary. ‎