tohpahz:


a medical doctors bla bla bla cant b threatened by a nurse... so y do they feel so?
what do they know... we know a lot..In my first 6months in nursing school.,i taught a houseman doctor who had obviously gone thru 6years how to pass a line (Iv) taught him to palpate. nd some other things..
for ur info.... we r bin taught how to examine... we don't just sit nd carry out d doctors order,
just dat our line of treatment differs because we have different perspectives to d whole thing...

a doctor diagnoses ulcer.. we diagnose pain.,inability to cope.. fluid volume deficit.. etc.. a doc gives drug nd other drug related therapies.... we mk use of d environment to help d patients nd also give drugs..
we see each patient as an individual dat has different problems.. dey c all patients as d same.....

so our work waheva z different nd i think d overattin shud stop.. .
If dey can have consultants. den we the nurses can have consultants too...!!

ONCE A NURSE. ALWAYS A NURSE!!!

It's these illiterate bunch that are making arguments on the doctors side more plausible. How can one spew such trash? So when a doctor prescribe sets of medications, your lousy self and Co bunch of killers have different medications to also administer right? No wonder this battle has and most be won by NMA.

dumodust:
indians and their gboju gboju medicine... acute calcium deficiency occurring over 2 weeks? and instead of causing tetany (generalized muscle spams) it is causing isolated shoulder pain?
what happened to xrays, mri and other basic tests? So now they detect calcium deficiency by just looking at people? See babalawoo! Thats the way they play to the gallery, ship u guys off to india and milk u dry
no nigerian doctor will answer an indian doc unlicensed in nigeria... orthopaedics is a complicated field, are u sure the injections he gave didnt work.your friend has just bin conned with analgesics ie painkillers

Pls before you jump into a discussion and make funny conclusions try to ask questions so you get the whole picture. He did all the scans and tests possible at all hospitals. Reddington hospital bill was very hefty. He had muscular spasms resulting in severe Shoulder and back pain. Exact word used was alcoholic neuropathy due to depletion of Ca and some other key vitamins and minerals. Since he didn't suffer any injury affecting his bones, his muscles where the most likely culprit. This made the 2nd dr diagnose a muscle tear. He is not on any pain killers at the moment. If the injections worked he wouldn't have been looking for a 3rd hospital due to the pain. Nigerian trained doctors practice abroad just like Indian trained doctors practice in Nigeria and contrary to your claim he's licenced.

blink182: Some years back I started having pains in my left leg veins and gradual joint stiffness. I went to hospital and was placed on pain killers which made no difference. I complained to the doctor but he said the pains will go. Eventually I was placed continuously on strong pain killers. My left femoral head had to crack and cave in under my weight before doctors started suspecting I had avascular necrosis of the left femoral head. It was even a lab technician that gave the diagnosis after a friend suggested I did xray. I took the result to 2 different bone doctors. One said I should wait until I became crippled and accept my life like that, the other said I should prepare to have the joint replaced. I was preparing for the operation when my mum met a guy with same condition but worse though he was now fully recovered. He directed us to the 'uneducated' bone specialist who treated me, stopped further deterioration of the joint and reduced joint pain.

I just look at the so called Nigerian doctors and laugh. They claim to know everything but know nothing. The worst set of professionals in this country. This is how they kill thousands of people yearly with wrong diagnosis and treatment. And they are very good at recommending surgery even when they know alternative treatment because that is where the money is.

When they are tired of the strike they should return to their jobs. Personally if I had the power to do such, I will have all of them placed on no work no pay, start advertising their positions on international job agencies and replace whoever refuses to show up for duty after expiration of a set deadline. Rubbish!

My friend,keep quiet!!!u think its ASUU strike wer talking about here abi...because ur babalawo managed 2 patch u up temporarily u r now coming here 2 Run ur lips...u need 2 quit ur passive aggression and begin 2 think rationally,b4 u suggest ur babalawo joins JOHESU to replace doctors.

Nice piece, truth be told. But sentiments aside, doctors stopped working in government hospitals, so that you nurses, lab hommies, physiotherapists, anaesthetists, cleaners, security men, generator men, and all what not, can come out and do the job, since you people said they can go to hell,cos una fit do am better than they...... Why are you people being so pained Action speaks better vocabulary than this dictionary you are pouring out here. You people should do the job and "shame" the doctors, IF YOU CAN. But since you can't, why not succumb to the doctors that can? But if you can, why rant? Let your works do the shouting. Patients and hospitals have been left in your care..... I wonder what else you want! The doctors' balls and labiaa

After reading through the article by Alli John Adeolu, Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist of God knows where, I couldn't help but punch my keyboard in response to his distortion of facts. There will have been no need for a reply if it were only for his low quality unreferenced write up. NMA raised 24 demands, but for reasons best known to him, he decided to chose only 4.

I think there is no need for me to respond to the jaundiced comparison of Doctors to either our colonialists/imperialists or Boko Haram, that will be too childish. If one finds it difficult to differentiate civility from primitiveness and started comparing Nigerian Doctors with murderous groups, then I guess it is a waste of intellectual calorie to try to reply.

Chief, doctors are not superior to other health workers because the former spent 6 years in undergraduate school, sam sam. Professional superiority arises because of competitive knowledge advantage and nothing else. Even if you extend the study of medical laboratory science to 10 years, its certificate cannot be equivalent to that of MBBS because the curriculum differs, their roles differ. It is not a matter of theology; belief or unbelief.

The FMOH of Nigeria doesn't have directories, but rather directorates and they are 8 and not at least 5 and they are not all headed by Doctors. According to Presidential Committee on a Harmonious Work Relationship Amongst Health Workers and Amongst Professional Groups in the Health Sector chaired by Hon. Justice Bello A. Gusau, "By its approved structure, the Federal Ministry of Health has eight Departments, namely: Department of Human Resources; Department of Finance & Accounts; Department of Planning, Research & Statistics; Department of Procurement; Department of Hospital Services; Department of Public Health; Department of Family Health and the Department of Food & Drugs Services. Of the four Professional Departments, three are headed by medical practitioners while one is headed by a health professional who is not a medical practitioner." Do you propose a JOHESU to head Hospital Services, Public Health or Family Health?

Yes the CMD and the CMAC are doctors, but you failed to mention the latter is a director of clinical services representing all the clinical departments with a single vote just like the director of administration, director of Nursing etc. The CMD is a Doctor because the law said so, you can always go to court if you are not happy about that. No, Doctor mustn't head medical lab scientist, but a Doctor must head clinical laboratory. If you decide to open your private lab, no Doctor will lord over you, but then he won't use results.

Truth is Doctors don't hate you guys to have increase in salary, but their must be relativity otherwise what is the essence of adding quality to patient care? Wages are paid based on intellectual input here on earth, I don't know of other planets. No Sir, thats incorrect, Doctors do not earn a minimum of N250,000 in Federal Institutions and a very senior consultant N500,000. Either you didn't see the circular or you are distorting it. Wouldn't it have been easier to just reproduce it here and compare CONMESS and CONHESS, to see who is cheating who?

I want to believe even a junior staff knows salary is divided in to basic salary and allowances. Federal Ministry of Education pays lecturer-Doctors basic salary while Federal Ministry of Health pays them call and specialist allowance. Does that constitute double salary? You see, don't dabble in to something you have no knowledge of. Have you ever read the responsibility of a Consultant? Do you imagine the fellowship is just for his immediate environment and his services not required in the periphery? Please check the geographical radius a consultant is suppose to rotates.

Since you are not a constitutional lawyer, why don't you allow a competent court of law interprets what medically qualified means. Shikenan. You insinuated medically qualified applies to you, thats delusional. Read the act for the appointment of CMD again or get a translation.

You carelessly define the word consultant without a single reference in the hope the gullible and lazy populace wont crosscheck. Both Advanced learners English dictionary and Merriam Webster dictionary have two similar definitions for the word. As per the latter thus;
1. A person who gives professional advice or services to companies for a fee.
2. A hospital Doctor of the highest rank who is an expert in a particular area of medicine.

Let me attempt to explain one demand called consultant/specialist in clinical practice. In summary all doctors have the basic undergraduate degree called MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery); which of cos currently is a misnomer since the course covers many specialties apart from the traditional Medicine and Surgery. In those days doctors were either physicians or Barbers (Surgeons). Now after the basic degree, you can divide doctors broadly in to two; Medical Officers and Consultants/Specialists. In between you have House Officers/interns and Residents (Specialists in training). To be a specialist, requires an average of 6 years in an accredited health institutions. Ours is not the traditional PhD cos of the complexity of human diseases and the need for clinical knowledge. Thus it is a unique training combining theory and clinical skills at the same time. Example, one cannot have a PhD in Neurology, in fact its impossible cos of the numerous neurological conditions afflicting human populace ranging from infectious, inflammatory, degenerative, neoplastic, traumatic, metabolic etc with further subdivisions. Another example, one will attempt to have PhD in a degenerative disease called Dementia. I say attempt cos its not even practicable due to its numerous causes. To be a Neurologist, one must be drilled first in all medical specialties for at least 24 months and then in human neurological clinical conditions in the remaining time including a thesis in one of the entity. The other arm is Medical Officer who chose not to specialize rather improve themselves either through academic degrees or just progressed through conventional civil service. The hierarchy is thus in descending order; Consultant > Residents > Medical Officers > House Officers in terms of professionalism and quality of patient care. Specialists are suppose to see complicated cases or those with potentials to cause complications and or cases requiring advance care; there is no need for a consultant to see controlled uncomplicated hypertension or diabetes mellitus, uncomplicated malaria, typhoid, pulmonary tuberculosis etc. Now is it fair to compare a medical consultant with someone who did 3 year diploma course with 1-2 year post basic studies or even that with academic PhD? In the tertiary hospital, a Consultant is the final refined touch of any patient management. He owns the patient, leads the unit, teaches medical students and mentor residents. So if someone say has an MSc in iron deficiency anaemia and PhD in hemoglobinopathies (assuming not just theoretical academic degrees), will he then be appointed as a Senior Resident and Consultant Hematologist respectively? What if someone present with hemophilia or leukemia? Ok I hear you say no big deal, there are others that will specialize in those areas. That is correct, but how many consultants are you going to have in hematology, 1000? Thus in a hospital you will need like 500,000 consultants to manage just one centre! This of course is not practicable and that is why medical postgraduate training is very different and unique. It may interest you to know Medical Officers whatever their qualifications or years of experience are not candidates for CMD in the tertiary institution or even the secondary centers in the presence of a consultant. Again the position of a consultant itself has legal implications when it comes to litigation, autopsy or as expert witness. Patient care is under the consultant playing the central role not because of anything but for his strategic knowledge advantage. There is no need for a consultant to be in the primary health centres. So if the FG appoints other health workers as medical consultants, imagine the confusion. What role will they play, what value will they add to patient care? Let me elaborate on this, a lab scientist will insist a patient to use an antimicrobial drug based on laboratory drug sensitivity pattern irrespective of clinical outcome whereas a Consultant Medical Microbiologist or Physician will not so long the patient is responding to the initial empirical drug treatment even if the pathogen shows antimicrobial resistance on the plate. Another example is physician will not treat as emergency isolated case of hyperkalemia without cardiovascular examination and ECG even if scientist suggested such. Chest pain with rise in cardiac enzymes doesn't necessarily mean Myocardial Infarction.

There is an old age rivalry between Doctors and other health workers that can be traced right from undergraduate level. You may not have noticed it or probably studied outside the country, but it was there. Not only among them but surprisingly even among lawyers. There is this childish debate about who is learned. This gradually turned in to envy and now dangerously in to enmity. Just read their comments, articles or interviews, you can't possibly missed the unmistakable deep seated frustration and hatred. People have no qualms spreading falsehood among unsuspecting populace just for financial gains. The funniest thing is that those people bring their family and relatives to see Doctors (they never entrust such burden on their colleagues) and the elite promoting the discord all have Personal Physicians. Am not aware of personal this or personal that, but then I know very little. Again when you go to the private clinic and NGOs, everybody conforms to ethics, isn't it a wonder? Why then do we have confusion only in the tertiary health institutions? Everything is about money. Ok suppose one of them is appointed a consultant, what will be his job description, what input will he make in patient care? Some even want to be appointed directors at grade level 17, imagine. As a Doctor with MBBS my entry point is grade level 12 and 15 as a specialist, imagine how many directors a teaching hospital will have in the next 6 years or so. What will happen to other civil servants who have reached level 17 but not yet directors? What will happen to other workers with same qualifications who are not even suppose to reach directorate level?

You seem to be fascinated with USA and UK model of health system where you were eager to emphasize the qualification of hospital CEOs. Yes they do have non Doctors as ministers of health, but you failed to say they equally have office of the Surgeon General and Chief Medical Officer as well. Ironically you are not that keen to borrow their leaf on privatization of hospitals because of cost, but in actuality it is the fear of loosing your fight. Why not go all the way and clone their system here? You have to understand theirs is a capitalist economy and thus putting a non Doctor up there doesn't mean anything. A Doctor will always put patient first in his policy, obviously this is against the fundamental of capitalism.

By Ibrahim Toli

Eldavido1:

It's these illiterate bunch that are making arguments on the doctors side more plausible. How can one spew such trash? So when a doctor prescribe sets of medications, your lousy self and Co bunch of killers have different medications to also administer right? No wonder this battle has and most be won by NMA.

i think u shud learn to read... did i say we gv different medications? No! i said we gv drugs too... meaning drug administration z part of our work...
please try getting educated nd civil...
as for d killers part. lol.. yea m here to kill u nd perform last orfice for u wen u finally die.... thanks

kbshow100: Not ready to read to read that stuff (too long). I need summary

This is the problem with your generation! If you can't read such a small passage, how can you hope to read to develop yourself after school? Remember that the difference between a literate and an illiterate is not the literate CAN read, but that the literate DO read! Mean there is no difference between a literate who does not read and an illiterate person!

phantom:

loyalty nah.... dah highlighted place says.... with loyalty will i endeavour to cooperate with other workers nd professional organizations...

".....and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug"

err,miss nightingale,wherever you are,your descendants have been doing the above albeit unknowingly BECAUSE they have refused to stay within their job descriptions.i wish you could resurrect,come to nigeria and see these nurses administer IV drugs in their homes codedly.
you would weep!!
nurses now manage prolonged and difficult labour and only send patients to us after they must have ruptured their uteruses
nurses now run pharmacies
nurses are opening diagnostic centers in town,reading xrays and scanning
miss nigtingale,its hell here in nigeria!

Morotov1: Medics are for doctors and military corps man. Paramedics are different from allied health workers Generally, it is incorrect to refer other health workers as such. Check the meaning of paramedics please.
The last paragraph they are all for the good of the patient....is it legal no matter how noble and justified it is.....just like a nurse writing prescriptions now doctors are on strike...

I deliberately chose "paramedics" to expose how even within your JOHESU ranks, the inferiority complex provokes an aggressive response to semantic variations. So "paramedic" is now an offensive term?

PS: A medical doctor is empowered to provide ANY medical service as long as it is within the scope of his own ability. That includes all para-medical services.

tohpahz:



loyalty nah.... dah highlighted place says.... with loyalty will i endeavour to cooperate with other workers nd professional organizations...

really?

Dazzlee: Now, someone's talking sense........Finally! Phew....

forgive me to say that I am yet to see any para medical professional who has put logic and facts on the table since this unfortunate NMA strike.
What I see are a bunch of academically lazy bunch who are tired of taking orders from Oga doctors.

Their arguements range from what is obtainable abroad aka international best practices (forgetting that Nigerian problem behooves a Nigerian solution) to the fact that they are professionals in their own field hence deserve cosultancy, these positions are so lame that even a clueless president like ours will find it amusing.

Hitherto, the consultant doctor owns the patient, it simply means that he has the final say on the patient's treatment regime.

We run a doctors only cmd hospitals in Nigeria.

Now I want the paramedicals to base their arguements on the following points.

1 The UME and post UME cut off points for doctors and paramedicals for the last 10yrs, by schools with recognised college of medicine.

2 The curriculum of a doctor from part 1 to consultancy vs the other paramedicals.

3 from point 1 and 2 above, we can now decide whom the CMD cap fits.

I am tired of rants from academically inept bunch.

Ochek: NMA STRIKE, THE NURSES' PERSPECTIVE. Let the comments pour...

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Historically, the first documented envy-ridden feud between Nurses and Doctors was during the Crimean War (1853-1856), when Florence Nightingale was commissioned to go to Scutari barracks in order to join military doctor...s to combat the high mortality rate in the military hospitals. The doctors, feeling threatened, resisted the help of Nightingale and her Nurses until they became overwhelmed with casualties and succumbed to reality.

This pattern of doctors being threatened by the educated and empowered Nurse has continued to plague the working relationship in the healthcare system till today. I am therefore not surprised as the current situation is not peculiar to Nigeria.

The war between Nurse Practitioners and Doctors is still on even in the country with the supposedly most advanced nursing practice in the world, USA. However, it is being done using tact, legislative lobbying and empirical evidence. In Nigeria, professional civility and self respect has been thrown to the winds as some Nigerian doctors handle this situation in an appalling manner, using a combination of verbal brawl, comical assertions and frustrated rants. This betrays their characteristic ego-servicing claims of being the most knowledgeable member of the healthcare team.

I have been silent about the ongoing row between Doctors and other health professionals since its beginning. While my colleagues and friends from other health professions have continued to spit fire and brimstone deriding the doctors, my social media walls have been squeaky clean, devoid of such tirades. This is not because of lack of professional patriotism or inability to lay the bricks of words to construct a towering harangue about the issue. But, due to many reasons – personal, interpersonal and professional, I have kept my cool and refused to give in to cheap ineffective social media rants. However, when someone like the author of this article publicly displays crass ignorance of the nursing profession through a charisma-laden, highly bombastic but grossly information-deficient and intellectually-flawed article like this; I feel
forced to talk, better still, write.
READ: Ayokunle Ayk Fowosire: NMA Strike: Consultant, My Foot!

The incessant strikes in the health sector have rendered the system moribund over the years. The ongoing feud has further grounded the ailing system. This article is not meant to expatiate and justify the (absolutely justifiable!) position of nurses and other health professionals (that is reserved for another day), but to answer Mr Fowosire’s beautifully-written article, an A-rated effort in sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. As much as I am highly disconcerted and extremely irritated reading Mr Fowosire’s article, I will try not to walk the dishonourable path of name calling. Therefore, in order to answer his pathetic rants, I do not intend to join issues with him or stoop low to trade banters, but this article will address the misrepresentation of facts presented by the previous writer.

On this background I can begin to address Mr Fowosire’s points. Firstly, the author’s effrontery to undermine the knowledge base of graduate nurses in basic medical science courses is a display of nescience. I still remembered that when I was in second year in the university, we attended the same lectures and wrote same exams for Reproductive and Digestive physiology and Neuroanatomy courses with third year physiology and Biochemistry students. Are doctors not being taught physiology and Biochemistry by graduate physiologists and Biochemists? Maybe a graduate nurse can now boast that s/he was taught in the same class with your teacher. Also in our third year, we were taught pathology with the same note used for part four Medical student. My transcript still says I scored 77% on the same Histo and chemical pathology MCQ given to part four Medical students. How did I know this? We used part four medical students’ past MCQ questions to prepare for
exams.

I will not forget to let you know that as a part 4 undergrad, I led Nursing department team to victory over senior part 6 medical students’ team in an interdepartmental debate on bothering national and international health issues; not to talk of the fact that we attended the same lectures with medical student colleagues during first year in the university and some of us clearly surpassed most of them in first year academic performance. And this is not as a result of ‘la cram la pour’ as you said, because the consistency I, specifically and many of my colleagues have shown in academic and intellectual performance over the years could not have come by that. In addition, this ironing of facts should not be misconstrued for vain ego aggrandisement but to let Mr Fowosire, many other doctors like him and the general public know that many
Nurses (especially degree holders) did not do nursing because they are academically-impaired but because of their love for the profession and some because of the socio-political environment of securing admissions into University in Nigeria.

The question of who should lead the healthcare team has also been a long-standing one. While many developed countries have undergone the health management structure-shift from vertically structured systems to a matrix structure, Mr Fowosire and many Nigerian doctors like him still live in the dark ages clamouring for ‘oga- omo ise’ relationship within the healthcare team. They want the Medical doctor to be even the director of Hospital security. This is inane absurdity. The National Health Service UK has been named as the best performing national health system in the world many times. The NHS and Hospitals in the UK are being managed by managers who are recruited through the NHS management trainee scheme. These trainees come from myriads of field, from geography to history, what matters in their recruitment is intelligence and ability to provide creative solutions to health system problems. These are recruited into the management cadre and grow through the ranks mastering the dynamics of the health system until reaching the highest managerial post of the hospitals and NHS trusts. Space will fail me to talk about the US, Canada, Sweden and so on. However, a six hours flight down south to Nigeria, we have the best medical professors and consultants
wasting human resource by sitting down romanticising administration as CMDs, instead of taking care of the patients they claim to own. A predilection fuelled by the position-consciousness, power-hungry-proclivity, greed and corruption eating the fabrics of our society.

It is on ‘debatable‘ record that the best ever Minister for Health in Nigeria in performance was an economist not a Medical Doctor, Prof Eyitayo Lambo. The reason for that is not surprising, it is just common sense. A simple google-oracle consultation will show all his achievements as the longest serving Minister for Health in Nigeria. I will like to highlight that majority of my colleagues in graduating class 2012, Master in Health Planning and Management, University of Maiduguri, were seasoned consultants in different medical and surgical speciality from all over Northern Nigeria. However, I finished in top three out of the over forty six members of the class. Therefore, if the CMD position is filled based on performance and best management knowledge, skill and expertise, why should I not be lined up for consideration for such alongside my classmate medical consultants? Nevertheless, going by the meaning of CMD (Chief Medical Director), the inherent nominalistic connotation in this position is the reason why the doctors have made the position their exclusive preserve; a domain they plan to extend to commissioner for health and Minister for health positions too. As a responsible professional, in my personal opinion (which many of my colleagues may differ with) it will be clearly unreasonable to make a nurse the chief medical director. Notwithstanding, my proposition has always been, ‘why do we need a CMD if we have a CMAC?’ Therefore, I think the name CMD should be ditched and changed to favour international best practices. I think something like Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer as used in developed world should be adopted. This de-clutters the name and removes any exclusive preserve that medical doctors may lay hold on.

In trying to disparage and clarify Mr Fowosire’s embellished bombastic views of the superiority of the doctor over other health professionals, I mentioned my previous consultant classmates who I respect for their professional achievements in their field. I do not in any way use this to mean that I know what the consultants know about medicine, but I bet the consultants do not know what I know about nursing too. You do not compare grapes to mango. There is no basis for such. They are two different fruits. However, in your five-a-day dietary plan, you need to have both; one cannot replace another.
On this premise, if the dictionary meaning of the term consultant, which has been selfishly usurped by doctors, is ‘a specialist’; then, why should a nurse, pharmacist or Laboratory Scientist not be called a consultant in their field if they have gathered enough knowledge, skill and pompetency to attain such specialised level. An expert who gives advice on business even if he has never managed one single start-up is called a business consultant. This is the case in many other professions and vocations. Why will doctors refuse to face their own effectiveness in their profession? Why are they trying so hard to bar other professions from progressing?

The ludicrous height of Mr Fowosire’s display of crassude was the un- informed assertion that there are no male midwives in Nigeria. There is
nothing like tradition in an Evidence-driven age and there is nothing like Midwifery being the exclusive domains of female nurses. I am a male midwife registered and licensed to practice by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. Male midwives have been produced and registered in Nigeriita since 2007 and I was one of the early set of male midwives to be registered in the country in 2009. I am proud to be who I am and I am striving to be the best at what I do. I only wonder where Mr Fowosire is undergoing his medical education if he is boldly casting such un-informed aspersion about Nigerian Nursing in 2014. Your stereotyped labelling of all male nurses as wanting to become a doctor can be forgiven as another symptom of your ‘hypo-exposure-induced myopia’.

Furthermore, Mr Fowosire tried to lark about, tinkering with words. He used a comparison of ‘doctored’ and ‘nursed’ as a contextual basis to make an assertion that we live in a society clouded by vanity. What a comedy? What a good understanding of English language? Nevertheless, I will ask, ‘why do we nurse children and not doctor them?’ ‘Why do we nurse ambitions…?’ ‘Why do we nurse wounds and pain…?’ I guess ‘nurse’ is not a bad verb after all; but why does the verb- ‘doctor’ sound like someone falsified claims, adulterated the original and committed fraud. This is exactly what the doctors in Nigeria are currently doing raising unfounded propaganda and spreading intentional half-truths and falsified claims about the essence of the ambitions of the other health professionals, an archetype of fraud.

Mr Fowosire, your fear and concern for the society and posterity in this issue is highly unnecessary and totally misplaced. Empirical evidence has it that Nurse-Led Units are making the difference in patient’s life in the developed world. In the UK, a Nurse led unit, Barking Community Hospital (Yes a nurse- led hospital) close by my apartment has MRI machine. How many Professor of Medicine-Led teaching hospitals in Nigeria have that? That is what you should be concerned about, the fact that our hospitals are ill-equipped for 21st century medical practice. What you should be getting concerned about is the fact that Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) are consulting at Paediatric Out-patient departments in State Owned supposed Specialist Hospitals in Nigeria. The fact that after government spend lots of money to train a doctor (common in Northern Nigeria) till he becomes a consultant in a rare speciality then he goes to sit in the office as a CMD while all the money
spent and specialist knowledge gained wastes. What you should be concerned about is the jungle medicine still being practiced in Nigerian teaching hospitals and many other cases of malpractice and negligence (documented by Olatunji Ololade in the Nation of 5th April, 2008), where doctors spent one month diagnosing a brain tumour as a sinusitis problem. And, most of all you should be very concerned about the fact that, after spending nine years for a six years course, you still have your part six MBBS exams to write. Until you become a fully certified medical doctor, your contributions in this debate are rather unwelcomed.

- Oladayo Afolabi is a trained Nurse-Midwife Researcher, Health Management
Consultant and Idea Driver for MACHE initiative Nigeria. He is currently
studying M.Sc. at London Metropolitan University on Dr. Muritala Muhammed
Postgraduate Scholarship. Twitter handle @deeone6603

Complete Bullshit!

phantom:
really?

yeah really... dah z d Florence Nightingale time....it has bin modified; cos we don't just assist d docs...

tohpahz:

i think u shud learn to read... did i say we gv different medications? No! i said we gv drugs too... meaning drug administration z part of our work...
please try getting educated nd civil...
as for d killers part. lol.. yea m here to kill u nd perform last orfice for u wen u finally die.... thanks

If I misquote you, then I am sorry about that. But saying " we gave drug too" aren't that suppose to be your primary responsibility? I thought doctors work is to prescribe while yours to administer, so what is special here? who is contesting with you about that? But if in anyway you administer medications other than does prescribe by doctors, then I am definitely right in calling you "bunch of killers". And by the way watch your spellings. I do have hard times reading short hand.

please show us the modified 'nightingale pledge"

could u post a recent one.. abi u ddnt c ma post dah it's bin modified??

michelz: Just imagine a scenario (as it usually happens in our health system),whereby a nurse or pharmacist who has been in a particular hospital for a long time,and then a fresh 'youth copper' doctor gets posted to that particular hospital and would want to start lording it over the nurse or the pharmacist.

This is the root problem. Inferiority complex

Like it or not, that fresh "youth copper" can be difference between life and death while your experienced nurse or pharmacist wrings his/her hands in confusion.

Eldavido1:

If I misquote you, then I am sorry about that. But saying " we gave drug too" aren't that suppose to be your primary responsibility? I thought doctors work is to prescribe while yours to administer, so what is special here? who is contesting with you about that? But if in anyway you administer medications other than does prescribe by doctors, then I am definitely right in calling you "bunch of killers". And by the way watch your spellings. I do have hard times reading short hand.

they administer only oral drugs. they shouldnt adminster IV drugs but they do in their various practices in town. let her tell you the truth

Doctors are the MEDICS, other health workers are PARAMEDICS. It is unthinkable to say a paramedic is at the same level with a medic. This applies to the military settings. During peace missions a PARAMILITARY personnel can only head the mission in the absence of a MILITARY personnel. If you want to head the health team, accept reality, go and read Medicine. Anything short of that is like trying to take what does not belong to you. @OP; it is true that you were taught the "same" Anatomy and Physiology with Medical students. But you refused to say you were taught and examined on topic by topic basis, while medical students were examined on an entire subject basis.

Seems the nightingale pledge is trending on nairaland...lemme 2 contribute.....

#shit,dis nurses/johesu aint loyal#

Doctors in this our beloved country are selfish,full of greed, all after what he/she can burst Of @ the end of the year. they never put the poor patient who can't afford they private hospital bill into consideration. Most of the big doctors how many hours to they put into government hospitals Remember the oath u took when attested as dr. You ll answer on that big day!!!!

The writer is so intelligent

Eldavido1:

If I misquote you, then I am sorry about that. But saying " we gave drug too" aren't that suppose to be your primary responsibility? I thought doctors work is to prescribe while yours to administer, so what is special here? who is contesting with you about that? But if in anyway you administer medications other than does prescribe by doctors, then I am definitely right in calling you "bunch of killers". And by the way watch your spellings. I do have hard times reading short hand.

giving drug is not our primary responsibility.

FDenigma:

I deliberately chose "paramedics" to expose how even within your JOHESU ranks, the inferiority complex provokes an aggressive response to semantic variations. So "paramedic" is now an offensive term?

PS: A medical doctor is empowered to provide ANY medical service as long as it is within the scope of his own ability. That includes all para-medical services.

That shows you that your ability has been limited by law because the " paramedics " are already performing your duties.
No wonder Nigerian doctors are retrained and reexamined when they leave the shores of these countries.
I will find it offensive if I am called what I am not and since you failed to distinguished the different and subsequently take correction on who and who are paramedics, may I use these medium to extend my desire to and not to be quoted by you concerning this discourse. Thanks.

tohpahz: could u post a recent one.. abi u ddnt c ma post dah it's bin modified??

i have shown you the ones google gave me. i cant find the modified one.
but why are nurses able to modify their pledge but expect the doctors to stick to the hippocratic oath. that line in your pledge was modified why? inferiority complex!!

NOTICE TO ALL (REAL) MEDICAL DOCTORS ON NAIRALAND:

1. Desist from providing special or free care to all JOHESU. Treat them like all other patients/clients (or offer them premium rates as JOHESU)

2. Desist from giving free training or consultations to JOHESU (same way you desist from giving training to native doctors and herbalists)

3. Refer any such "doctors" seeking your medical opinion to the nearest JAMB office to buy UTME forms.

Thanks!

I do pray that the OP's practice of Nursing is not as woeful as his writing. He does not seem to know the f what he is talking about. What is even more troubling, however, is how utter mediocrity is again celebrated wholesale in these pages.

Morotov1: That shows you that your ability has been limited by law because the " paramedics " are already performing your duties.
No wonder Nigerian doctors are retrained and reexamined when they leave the shores of these countries.
I will find it offensive if I am called what I am not and since you failed to distinguished the different and subsequently take correction on who and who are paramedics, may I use these medium to extend my desire to and not to be quoted by you concerning this discourse. Thanks.

Hahaha! My patented "JOHESU Bait" works again! Another paramedic comes out of the closet!

Morotov1: That shows you that your ability has been limited by law because the " paramedics " are already performing your duties.
No wonder Nigerian doctors are retrained and reexamined when they leave the shores of these countries.
I will find it offensive if I am called what I am not and since you failed to distinguished the different and subsequently take correction on who and who are paramedics, may I use these medium to extend my desire to and not to be quoted by you concerning this discourse. Thanks.

@ the bolded. you see why allowing you guys to head the hospitals is like initiating apoptosis in our healthcare system.
let me ask you.....what is the purpose of medical licensing exams in different countries

please answer me.