The Nigerian Universities Nursing Students Association (NUNSA) in collaboration with National Association of Nigerian Student Nurses and Midwives (NANSNM) and the West African Nursing Students Association (WANSA) held its leadership summit on December 14th to 20th 2015 with the theme “Nursing in Nigeria: Rethinking the missing link”. This summit was aimed at engendering an exciting exploration of the most pressing issue within nursing profession as it relates to quality health care delivery.

Despite the theme of the leadership summit, it was evidently clear that the most pressing issue that motivated participation of Nursing students from different regions of the country was"internship for University graduate nurses" and the highly acclaimed Unified scheme of service being proposed by the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).

Though one would have anticipated a mass protest and awareness campaign in the nation’s capital Abuja prior to the summit with the sole objective of sensitizing the public and making the demands of Nigerian Nursing students/graduates a major issue of concern to the Federal government, ministry of health, ministry of labour& productivity and the National council of establishment (NCE). But like the resolutions of GNAN, the NUNSA leadership had subscribed to “Sustainable lobbying” as the methodology to actualization of the internship struggle.

Prior to the summit, NUNSA under the leadership of comrade Toba Odumosu in company of a team of chapter Presidents and stakeholders paid a solidarity visit to the leadership of NANNM, to discuss their take on the issue of internship for graduate nurses and its affiliation with the proposed Unified scheme of service. In attendance at the visit, were NANNM principal officers Alhaji Abdrafiu Alani Adeniji (NANNM National President), T. A. Shettima (NANNM Ag. General Secretary) and Mr.Badmus Yusuf (NANNM Deputy National President).
In an introductory speech, comrade Toba Odumosu appreciated the leadership of NANNM for supporting NUNSA before and during the national leadership summit which has helped to create a new pedestal and strengthen the relationship between the school of nursing students and the university undergraduates. He also stated that the meeting was aimed at creating a platform for NUNSA leaders to air their views on issues affecting the profession. Amongst the issues raised by NUNSA, stakeholders focused more on the issue of internship placement for University nursing graduates and an appeal to the leadership of NANNM to take necessary actions towards the implementation of internship for nursing students. Also of concern was the issue of the unified scheme of service which was recommended to be put in place to accommodate internship for graduates of bachelor of Nursing science for the financial remuneration of would be interns.

Responding to the requests of the team of young nursing leaders present, Mr. Badmus Yusuf,NANNM Deputy National President stated that the issue of internship has been discussed severally and was earlier promised to be a thing of the past by June 2015, but was not achieved due to transition of government and the political state of the country. He further stated that internship is subsumed into the scheme of service and that we cannot get scheme of service without the National council of establishment (NCE) meeting.

You would recall as published by Nursingworld Nigeria, that the last NCE meeting (38th) was held in illorin, Kwara state in 2014 wherein a communiqué was issued reiterating that"professional qualifications of certain professional bodies seeking inclusion in Schemes of Service should be recognized for proficiency purposes with the approval of internship for graduate nurses with an entry point at level 8 and would progress to level 9 after NYSC"

Internship is the way forward school of nursing should be affiliated to universities or they should be colleges and under ministry of education and not health anymore . ministry of Heath is killing us and its expensive compare to university nursing

Contd.

Mr.Badmus Yusuf posited that “internship has to go through the scheme of service to determine the grade level for the placement of interns and that NANNM has met all necessary requirements from the ministry of health, Council of Establishment and office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and have forwarded a memoranda to the special 12 man committee of permanent secretaries of NCE set up by the head of civil service of the federation for considerations and approval. What remains now is for the Council of establishment to meet and for the 12 man committee to make their report to the council for approval to be given”.
He stated that the 39th NCE meeting scheduled to hold in Minna, Niger State in 2015 couldn’t hold due to inaccessibility of funds from the federal government to fund and sponsor it during the last batch of the previous administration, as more funds were channeled to political activities and the electoral processes compared to other government parastatals. The expectations Of NANNM leadership therefore remains a strong hope that the present administration will make provision for the Council of establishment to meet in the first quarter of 2016. Once that is achieved, we have no problem with achieving the scheme of service and internship.
T. A Shettima (NANNM Ag. General Secretary) stated during the occasion that “no specific date or month is given for the actualization of internship as it’s said to be conditioned on the 39th meeting of NCE, which means that if NCE cannot meet for the next 10 years,internship may not be actualized for the next 10 years. If they are meeting today, we are likely to say that internship for graduate nurses will be possible today”.
On a final note, the NANNM National President, Alhaji Abdrafiu Alani Adeniji stated that as professional unionist, striking for the issue of internship for graduate nurses as recommended by some nursing professionals is not ideal as it does not fall under the category of dispute of rights (fundamental human rights) but of dispute of interest. Striking he stated is only feasible under the labour law when a negotiation hits the rock. But for the issue ofinternship, the trend of negotiation must be followed as the issue of strike remains a sensitive one.
He stated that the ministry of health under the leadership of professor Onyebuchi Chukwu and the ministry of labour under the leadership of Chief Emeka Wogu accepted the National industrial court judgment of professionalization ofnursing and recommended that nurses and midwives should have a unified scheme of service and that internship for graduate nurses be accommodated into the schemes of service. He stated that the issue of internship has left the purview of the Ministry of health, Nursing council, NANNM and is for the national council of establishment to decide.
For the issue of the Unified scheme of service, He stated that NANNM has gone far as to ensure the implementation of Unified scheme of service not withstanding the several petitions signed by GNAN and other nursing professionals that has posed a deadlock, especially the write up of nurses to the 12 man committee established by NCE, aimed at gunning down the proposed unified scheme ofservice. Most are asking the meaning of unified scheme of service on socialmedia, but Unified scheme of service is the best you can think of for nursing profession in Nigeria today. It’s only nursing as a profession that has about 5 cadres of schedules of work called scheme of service, it has to be put together as a unified system.
Alhaji Abdrafiu Alani Adeniji therefore advised that all nurses should endevour to support the progressives amongst the profession and let’s try to free ourselves from the shackles of oppression and retrogression that is threatening nursing training and practice in Nigeria, NANNM is ready to assist in the building of the profession.
He thanked the team for the visit and recommended similar visits in the future to further strengthen our bond of relationship, stating that “we must try to fight against disharmony in the profession as the claim that the University graduates has less clinical competence while the school of nursing graduates has less theoretical competence should not be heard of, let’s merge everything and allow our certificates to judge us when the time comes”.
NANNM has stated that the non implementation of the Unified Scheme of Service is a major challenge hindering the development of nursing profession while GNAN continues fighting passionately for the inclusion of University graduate nurses in the Internship package enjoyed by other health care professions and their proper placement in the Scheme of service.