It is now glaring obvious and can be forecasted that Nigerian hospitals would start experiencing shortage of Nursing personnel as early as 2022 as scores of Nurses are fleeing the country due to unfavorable working conditions and poor remuneration

Data obtained from the NCSBN website has shown an alarming trend in the number of Nigerian Nurses attempting the NCLEX Board exams.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) is an independent, not-for-profit organization through which nursing regulatory bodies in the United States develop nursing licensure examinations (NCLEX). The new quarterly examination statistics update by the NCSBN lists the top five countries of nurses educated outside the U.S, taking the NCLEX examination for the first time in hopes of obtaining nursing licensure and employment in the U.S. You would recall that passing the NCLEX is the final step in the U.S nurse licensure process and this NCSBN update provides the most recent information on the NCLEX testing volume and the associated pass rates.

SEE NCLEX TEST STATISTICS BELOW

According to the NCSBN figures obtained by Jude chiedu of Nursingworld, 623 Nigerian nurses have written the exams since January thru September 2019. Data for July - September 2019 ranks Nigeria 3rd with 242 nurses who wrote the NCLEX Board exams, only topped by Philippines and India with 3174 and 395 candidates respectively.

This is a far leap from fifth position Nigerian candidates maintained between Jan - March (181) and April - June (200).

The NCSBN data also showed that a total of 29,494 internationally educated Nurses have written the NCLEX so far in 2019 with a pass rate of 38.4%

Responding to the reason for this upward trend, Nurse Chioma Anozie attributed the exodus of immigration to the hostile and appalling working conditions in the country in addition to poor remunerations. She charged the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for nurses to stem the tide noting that the impending shortage of nurses would take a toll on the gains made in fighting maternal mortality and also encourage unregulated practice by quacks in a bid to fill the void created by nurses escaping Nigeria

Jude Chiedu
Nursingworld Nigeria