Nursing in the university, though
rigorous, grooms graduate nurses to
become independent and aims to
provide research oriented nurses who
are capable of using intellectual
prowess and critical thinking to
diagnose patients’ conditions
accurately, provide necessary
management and assist clients to
achieve optimal health.

The Bachelor of
Nursing Science (BNSc) Program
prepares graduates to take leadership
positions and roles in every arm of
health care deliveries and agencies. It
also aims to produce graduate nurses
who use evidence- based practice
with a more detailed theoretical
background and a concentrated clinical
skills and prowess for the optimal
outcome of patients’ wellbeing and
that of the communities at large.


However, all these are mirage and are
liken to castles built in the sky, If these
set of graduate nurses are enrolled into
the national youth service without
allowing them to participate in the one
year mandatory internship program as
stipulated by National Universities
Commission (NUC) for decades. The
proposed Internship is a one year
mandatory clinical and hospital based
program designed for fresh graduates
of health professions like pharmacy,
med lab science, radiography, nutrition,
medicine, Occupational Therapy,
dentistry and physiotherapy to undergo
before enrolling them into the national
youth service. Hence, these
aforementioned disciplines go for a year
internship in any government approved
hospitals except our noble profession
NURSING.

Nothing on earth justifies the
exclusion of graduate nurses from this
mandatory one year internship
program?
It is malignant and disastrous to allow
these set of graduate nurses into the
national youth service without the one
year internship program, because
majority of these fresh professionals
would have remained hibernated for at
least 14 months post graduation, before
the youth service mobilization comes
their ways. During this space of 14
months staying at home awaiting call
up letter to serve their fatherland as
mandated by the law of the land as a
requirement for employment in both
government and private parastatals,
these set of polyvalent graduate nurses
become cold and malnourished
clinically and because of lack of
involvement in clinical apprenticeship,
they are rendered clinically sedated
and tyro.

The result is a clinically
deficient graduate nurse who could only
perfectly quote theories and textbooks
without actually appreciating the real
practice of nursing in all ramifications.
These are the set of people the
government, ministry of health and
Nursing and Midwifery Council of
Nigeria(NMCN) are comfortably allowed
to proceed into the national youth
service without undergoing the 12
months internship program that will
make them a full fledged nurse
practitioner, unlike their counterparts in
other health related professions who
might have undergone a full 12 months
internship program in approved
hospitals before the national youth
service.

It is laughable and taunting to
expect these graduate nurses to
perform at par with their counterparts
in the health sector who underwent
internship program or as expected by
their employers in their various primary
places of assignment during the youth
service. Without this one year
internship program, graduate nurses
posted to communities during the youth
service may become endangered
species to the host communities rather
than becoming nurse clinicians who
should salvage the lives of vulnerable
and sick individuals in the communities.
This is as a result of the deaf ears
turned to the crying and yawning of
nursing students, lecturers, and nurses
by policy makers and some set of
individuals who perceive internship for
fresh graduates of BNSc as a threat to
them, or in one way or the other have
been benefiting from the unveiled
hatred and ill harsh meted on the
graduate nurses.


These set of individuals clog the
wheels of progress of the nursing
profession thereby making the
profession burdensome and backward
with little motivation for these fresh
graduates who spent close to six years
studying nursing and midwifery. The
Nursing and Midwifery Council of
Nigeria (NMCN), National Association of
Nigerian Nurses and Midwives
(NANNM) and the government know
that it is disdaining, unethical and
unprofessional to allow graduates of
this profession into the national youth
service without having them to go
through the mandatory one year
internship program that will help them
make a smooth transition from a theory
based practice to a more clinical
platform, enable graduates to
appreciate the glance of clinical practice
and also make them proficient,
confident and skillful in nursing practice
and marketability by their employers.


It is therefore imperative that the
National Association of Nigerian Nurses
and Midwives (NANNM) challenge this
unwholesome affront meted on nursing
profession. We condemn this
unequivocally and refuse to be half
baked anymore. NANNM should rise
against all present anomaly and
doldrums that make it such that even
the closest professionals to the patients
are sidelined from an internship capable
of transforming them into full fledged
professionals.

BY OLOYE ABIOLA OLUWAFEMI
Rn,BNSc. (Ife)
08068063250


Copied from nursingworldnigeria.com


cc:
Lalasticlala
seun

OP, wait o lemme go and call my househelp to help me read this...
Seems she has time..

sirteayeni:
OP, wait o lemme go and call my househelp to help me read this...
Seems she has time..

Judging from ur comments, you are contributing a great percent of Nigerias' backwardness.

NairalandDotOrg:

Judging from ur comments, you are contributing a great percent of Nigerias' backwardness.

My comment made you this passionate ?
Sorry o

sirteayeni:
My comment made you this passionate ? Sorry o

I'm not angry with you oo..

NairalandDotOrg:

I'm not angry with you oo..

please edit the post... I didn't get over the 4th line. The layout makes it difficult to comprehend.

Thanks