Lalasticlala

Lalasticlala

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


http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2016/01/internship-a-vital-requirement-for-graduates-of-bachelor-of-nursing-science-bnsc-programme

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.

Nursing practice today is based on scientific evidence; and, when there is a lack of evidence, registered nurses conduct research to generate new knowledge, said Charleen McNeill, a University of Arkansas assistant professor of nursing.
She recently published research with colleagues to help a Texas hospital address a nursing retention challenge.
McNeill's article, co-written with three colleagues at the University of Texas at Tyler, where McNeill earned a doctorate in nursing in 2014, is published online by the journal Nursing Ethics. It's titled "Professional Values, Job Satisfaction, Career Development and Intent to Stay."
She said the four nursing educators decided to conduct the research study after learning that a major academic medical center was having difficulty retaining mid-career nurses.
"The medical center leadership sought to explore what their nurse-leaders needed to do to improve retention among their mid-career registered nurses," McNeill said. "Research conducted to address a problem in real time often provides very valuable information. In nursing, we try to focus very much on evidence-based research to address problems we're seeing, everything from infection to nurse retention. In the new health care environment, nurses are expected to change their practice based on evidence."
In a survey of nurses at the hospital, the findings suggested a strong correlation between professional values and career development and that both job satisfaction and career development correlated positively with nurse retention.
"The work culture that leaders create – the environment that nurses are working in – is the most important thing related to retention," McNeill said. "It's very expensive to hire new nurses. When we have good nurses, we want to keep them so we need to understand what's important to keep them."
The paper also discussed intergenerational conflict that may occur because nurses in today's workplace come from four distinct generations.
"Instead of looking at it as conflict, nurse- leaders must leverage the strengths of each generation and determine innovative strategies to empower all nurses," McNeill said. "Younger generation nurses feel like they don't have power over their practice, they're not in charge, and that is logical because they are novice practitioners. However, they bring a knowledge of technology that seasoned nurses may lack.
In turn, more experienced nurses support the clinical learning and professional role formation of new nurses. Successful nurse-leaders find ways to garner the strengths of each generation of nurses to achieve the best patient outcomes."
McNeill joined the faculty of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions in 2014.
"This work represents a great example of a junior faculty member building an interprofessional network to support her scholarship," said Julie Hoff, director of the nursing school.
The research also bolsters McNeill's work as a member of the nursing faculty. The nursing school offers both master's and doctoral degrees in nursing with the coursework offered online through the Global Campus. The nursing degree programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
"We are building a new master's degree in nursing, focused on nurse executive leadership, intended to address shortage of nurse-leaders in this area," McNeill said. "Having more nurses with advanced degrees ultimately improves patient outcomes and nurse retention."
The survey also found that some factors in retention may be out of the employer's control but they need to be investigated deeper, she said. The results suggested that nurses who are the sole financial support for themselves or their families tend to be less satisfied with their jobs than nurses who have additional financial support.
"This financial burden, coupled with the competing demands of life, is considered a non-modifiable risk factor, something that hospitals can't do anything about," McNeill said. "That extra strain on the nurse affects both life satisfaction and job satisfaction, we believe. We need to do more research on that question."
Heidi S. Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@ uark.edu


Source: http://news.uark.edu/

http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2016/02/nursing-professor-s-research-examines-factors-affecting-retention

NAIRALAND= Nigerians Aims In Rational And Logical Development Not Division.

Lalasticlala

LUTH management also reaffirmed this when it refused accepting Masters degrees in these "allied course" obtained by lecturers in its school of Midwifery insisting that professional progression must be dependent on acquisition of masters degree in core Nursing courses for holders of BNSc qualification, not masters in an allied course.
Thus the route may provide an avenue for further degrees in other professional domains but these degrees outside of Nursing may count for nothing professionally.
On the long run, the abysmal remuneration of being a singled qualified (RN) nurse would force you to seek further post basic qualification which costs an average of another N250,000 to N300,000 in admission costs. I forgot to add that most post basic programs would insist that you should have practiced for at least 2 years before applying; a two year experience you would gain trolling from one private hospital to another where you would be overworked and underpaid.

Remember, this post basic qualification is a prerequisite if you would want to be employed on GL 08 step 4 instead of step 1 if you had only an RN. What this means is that you may never get to the peak as your professional growth terminates abruptly at grade level 14 and you can only go beyond this on lateral conversion to the officers cadre following acquisition of a Nursing degree
By this time, six years or more would have rolled by. You probably have gotten married with kids and wishing you went with route 3 (BNSc Nursing). Albeit late, you decide to start the 4 year university route. If financially buoyant, you probably enroll in a neighboring country like benin republic, ghana, niger for a BNSc program or you spend another two years battling to get a DE admission to a Nigerian university.

Adult education at this time puts your marriage under strain, your life is put at risk as you make multiple treacherous travels to the university, the emotional and psychological torture cannot be quantified not to talk of the financial burden of university admission. The entire rigmarole is just time wasting, psychologically demeaning and heart wrenching.
Globally, the system of education in nursing is changing. I sincerely hope that this article on Nurs ingworldNigeria.com enlightens you to make an informed decision on which route suits you best. I wish you best of luck.
Jude Chiedu Fwacn
(Former CEO, Nursingworld Nigeria)

source
http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2016/03/must-read-before-you-buy-that-school-of-nursing-admission-form-by-jude-chiedu
If you already are a nurse, then please share this article for the benefit of those who aspire to become registered professional nurses.

If you are reading this then you probably aspire to be a Nurse and you are searching for a school of nursing currently selling admission forms.
Cool, kindly visit http://nursingworldnigeria.com/category /nursing-admission-forms-on-sale.
But before you click the link i think it is only wise that you know what your options are before you purchase that school of Nursing form.
Did you know that there are three (3) routes to becoming a registered nurse and/or midwife in Nigeria.

1) The 3 year Basic General Nursing Programme
2) The 3 year Basic Midwifery Training Programme and
3) The 5 year Generic BNSc Nursing Programme

The cool thing is that these 3 routes share the same entry requirements of Credits in five subjects (English language, Maths, Biology, Physics and Chemistry in not more than 2 sittings). The only difference is the JAMB requirement for the BNSc programme, meaning you have a choice to either go pick up a form for either the basic nursing/ basic midwifery program or go the extra mile and sit for JAMB for the BNSc Program.

The 5 year Generic BNSc Nursing Programme
The 5 year BNSc program is designed to make you a polyvalent nurse practitioner at the end of which you graduate with the General Nursing program qualification (RN), the Midwifery program qualification (RM) and a Bachelors degree in Nursing (BNSc). Most institution now put an icing on the cake with an extra qualification in Public health Nursing. Isn't that cool?. Oh, i forgot to add that with this qualification, you can seamlessly move on to get your masters degree in Nursing and then a Ph.D in Nursing.

The 3 year Basic Midwifery Training Programme
An obvious major draw-back to the 3 year basic midwifery route is the fact that even after qualifying as a Registered Midwife, most recruiting organizations would always request for a double qualified practitioner, thus you still have to go back for another 18 months post basic general nursing course. The fact that most universities do NOT accept RM qualification for direct entry purposes is another huge challenge.
The 3 year Basic General Nursing Programme
For the basic general nursing programme, you'll need to cough up an average of N250,000 to N300, 000 for admission fees first of all. You should also know that the 3 year duration isn't inclusive of the 6 months that you would spend in PTS. This 3 years can within the blink of an eye extend to 4, 5 years in different guises such as demotion, pregnancy, flimsy suspensions by our almighty SON principals, indexing wahala, exceeded admission quota by schools, accreditation issues, failure in either of the NMCN Qualifying exams or Hospital finals etc. The list is endless.
Even after writing the NMCN exams, you still get to spend some extra months working in the wards for "free" in the training hospital pending when council releases your final qualifying result.
I probably missed out how you cant immediately apply for Direct entry or go for a post basic course as there is no definite timeline as to when the council would release your license and/or notification. Academic sessions and job opportunities fly by while you wait endlessly on the council.
An important fact you should know is that the general nursing and basic midwifery routes are both hospital based programs with professional licensure and it was only in october of 2007 that an expert assessors committee accorded the qualifications obtained therein the same as HND attracting a grade level08 (step 1) for employment purposes only and NOT for academic purposes.
A major advantage though, of obtaining an RN qualification either via route 1,2 or 3 is that it qualifies you to practice as a nurse abroad. RN qualification is also a valid requirement for further studies in the Nigerian university system for direct entry (DE) into degree programs in philosophy, psychology, social works etc.

The major draw back here is that the profession at the moment is embroiled in a bitter fight for the soul of Nursing professionalism. Earning a degree in these previously and erroneously tagged "degrees allied to Nursing" according to our statutory regulatory body NMCN does not qualify one to progress to the directorate Nursing cadre. This stance by the NMCN reinforced the position of the National council on establishment (NCE) at its 37th Meeting in Akure where it stated that "Possession of a first degree in NURSING, not alllied courses is a sine qua non of running the nursing officers cadre.

Lalasticlala

At a workshop for nurse leaders, I read on Nursingworld Nigeria that a speaker had said, “Nurses are this country’s best kept secret, and we need to wake up.”

This statement Struck my subconscious and then i began to wonder how i had contributed to keeping "US' a secret. and by "us", i want to focus on the MALES in the profession.
Incidentally, the two giant institutions of Nursing in nigeria NANNM (Abdulrafiu Adeniji) and the Nursing Council (Jamaru Mustapha) are headed by male nurses.... yet In the eyes of the public, Male Nurses are unheard off. Fellow Male nurses would attest to how pain-staking it is to explain to people that guys do nursing.
It is even more shocking when i have to explain to fellow colleagues that males like me are also registered Midwives.
But who is to blame? The General consensus is Nurses are predominantly females, so there is already a culture bias on who should be a nurse.
Patients always belief every male health worker is a doctor and every female is a Nurse. But we have by our own inactions sanctioned this belief. Automatically, killing off the idea that male nurses exist.
I believe that the only logical and the moral path to fight this is to ascribe to the profession what belongs to it and the respect it garners by our individual and collective goods when we are mistakenly assumed to be doctors.
Here is how:

- when you provide life saving actions and the patients relatives say "thank you DOCTOR", tell them "I AM A NURSE"

- when you provide aid to an accident victim on the roadside and the people around appreciate your effort and say "God bless you Doctor", politely tell them "I am not a doctor;I AM A NURSE"

- When a police officer at the checkpoint pull you over in your expensive ride and refers to you as a doctor because of the big JEEP and stethoscope hanging on the center mirror, tell him "OFFICER, I AM A NURSE"let him know that we do drive expensive rides.

- When you attempt and successfully resuscitate a cardiac arrest patient in the market square and every one applauds you and discuss how doctors are life savers, do not walk away without clearing the notion that we nurses are life savers, tell them please!i am a NURSE

- When as an occupational health nurse, you go for hospital or/and accommodation inspection; don't leave the vicinity without letting them know that you are representing your organization and that you are doing such in your capacity as aNURSE

- When you are introduced at a public function as "Doctor ..." probably because you have a PHd, and the audience give you a standing ovation at the end of your presentation, please take time to let them know that you are aNURSE
Someone needs to start setting the records straight, because every good deed you perform as a MALE nurse would always be ascribed to the medical profesion since the patient and public see you as a doctor.
All am saying is this, whether you are RN, RM, BNSc or PHd: It high time we begin to make our presence felt in every little way possible, one step at a time. This is one way to redeeming our image, one way we can accord ourselves the respect we derserve and have earned.
Go out today and be a proud nurse, Let the public know who we really are and ALL that we do; a distant contrast to what they see in the movies and read in the media.
I am NOT a Doctor; I am a proud Nurse!

http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2014/03/i-am-no-doctor-i-am-a-proud-nurse-by-jude-chiedu&sa=U&ei=TawuU57KHqay0QX7sIEw&ved=0CAgQFjAB&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNG31Kctz5rJzEEMVWXpX8b-LV0J2w

3. Mr. President these wanton injustices are an important nexus to the gross animosity, disaffection and disharmony that has characterized our contemporary health system. How can we be talking about achieving industrial harmony in the health system when we are deliberately encouraging and perpetrating injustice? Can there be peace and harmony where inequity, marginalization and isolated deprivation of due rights thrive? Equity they say breeds lasting peace. Therefore until equity triumphs over professional chauvinism and deliberate injustices in our health system no lasting peace or harmony can be achieved. For we, the nurses, we have no sense of belonging in our healthcare system and never shall we have confidence in the system unless the guile, deliberate injustice and unfair treatment meted out to us are addressed.

4.Despite the provocative short-changing and unwarranted deprivation orchestrated against nurses, we have never derailed from showing Nightingale’s patriotism, decorum, calmness and unequalled commitment towards qualitative healthcare by putting our clients first and above other things and shunning the temptation of industrial action to press for the rectification of these injustices being meted out against us. It is unfortunate and a grisly precedence that our patriotism, restraint and maturity in the face of gross injustice have been misconstrued as fragility or foolishness. Notwithstanding, we have an unalloyed belief that the 8th senate under your able leadership does not yield to unwarranted injustices, cheats and marginalization of any sort hence this humble petition from our broken hearts.

PRAYER
With a broken heart and bloodshot eyes full of tears, this association passionately prays that you kindly use your altruistic personality, the power of your good office and goodwill of the 8th senate to

i. Compel the concerned authorities especially the Minister of Health and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation to see to the immediate release of circulars implementing the NUC approved mandatory internship training and proper placement of the graduates of the Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree on at least CONHESS 09 post-NYSC as has been done for the University Graduates of other core healthcare professions.

ii. Strictly enforce the rule of law in the Health Sector by extending the oversight of legislators to CMDs and compelling them to pay in arrears, the Nurses teaching and uniform allowances, which they have withheld without any justification and above all compel their respect for the sanctity of the schemes of service, the public service rules and other extant circulars.
Sir, your prompt response and that of the entire senate to our appeal would be phenomenal because it would inadvertently dispel the cloud of doubts and the already walling belief, that the Nigerian government does not promptly respond to genuine issues when due process is followed unless and until coloured with violence and anarchy.
Please find attached copies of the referenced documents.
Submitted with deepest sense of respect and responsibility.

Signed:
Chief (Hon) S.E.O. EGWUENU Nurse G.I. Nshi
National President National Secretary

TO: Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON)
The President of the Senate
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The National Assembly Complex,
3 Arms Zones,
P.M.B 141 Abuja FCT, Nigeria.

CC
Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Chairman Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chairman Senate Committee on information and National Orientation.

Dr. Lanre Tejuoso, Chairman Senate Committee on Health

Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, the Ag Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker House of Representatives.
Chairman House Committee on Public Petition.

Prof. Isaac F. Adewole, Honourable Minister of Health.

Source
http://www.nursingworldnigeria.com/2015/11/re-health-system-injustice-in-nigeria-a-cry-from-a-broken-heart

10. Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) and Medical Directors (MDs) of Federal health institutions, the demigods of our healthcare delivery system, alas, have equally compounded our problems by their flagrant impunity and disregard for the schemes of service, civil service rule and other extant circulars governing the civil service of the federation.

For example, when teaching allowance was wrongly and irrationally withdrawn from nurses and midwives below the grade of CONHESS 09 in January 2014, we frowned at and condemned the development on the ground that Nurses and Midwives, irrespective of grade and cadre, are involved in client teaching and advocacy and that student Nurses and Midwives, and others including interns, also get a lot of tutelage from nurses in the clinical setting.
And more so we saw no reason why nurses that work in the clinical setting should be exempted from such allowance that is exclusive to clinical staff whereas non-clinical staff that work in offices are remunerated for such, notwithstanding that they have no business with patients and medico-nursing students. We directed our complaints to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and the commission saw reason with us and ordered the restoration of the withdrawn teaching allowance in a circular Ref no. SWC/S/04/S.176/T/73 dated 4thJuly, 2014.Since the restoration of the teaching allowance no CMD/MD had effected its payment to the affected nurses and midwives despite glaring evidence that they have received funds for such as exposed by a circular from office of the permanent secretary, Ministry of Health Ref no.C2262/T/110 dated 29thJuly, 2015 (herein attached as Annexure B).

1. Some of the CMDs/MDs possibly have their own separate schemes of service different from that of the civil service of the federation. If not, how can some CMDs, for example those of Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia, Abia State, and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH),Rivers State, brazenly go against and desecrate the provision of section 3.7, page 105, of the Schemes of Service for use in the Civil Service of the Federation, 2003 (herein attached as Annexure C) which makes it strict, compulsory and unambiguous that a Nurse must have at least a first degree in Nursing to be qualified for promotion to the directorate cadre of the Nursing profession, to appoint their unqualified cronies not only into the directorate cadre but also promoting them above their qualified seniors to head the departments of Nursing services in their respective hospitals and yet they were not investigated let alone queried till date despite our complaint to the office of the head of the civil service of the federation?

2.As we are still groaning under the rubble of the already wrecked havoc, more came our way by the surreptitious disappearance of Uniform allowance from the payroll of Nurses in the wake of migration to the integrated personnel and payroll information system (IPPIS).The exclusivity of Nurses’ uniform allowance is well detailed, unequivocal and unambiguous in Chapter 13 paragraph 130127 of the Public Service Rules 2008 edition (herein attached as Annexure D), yet was omitted by IPPIS with the excuse that the ‘above the law’ CMDs/MDs shall pay it from the internally generated revenues (IGR) of their respective hospitals. Since migration to IPPIS, the question that begs an answer is; how many CMDs/MDs have complied with payment of the uniform allowance to Nurses from the IGR? Is leaving the uniform allowance to the mercy of the CMDs/MDs not tantamount to technically and indirectly telling Nurses to forego their uniform allowance? Since wearing uniforms is a compulsory obligation for Nurses as stipulated by law, isn’t the stripping of uniform allowance that gives them the capacity to carry out the obligation sheer hypocrisy on the part of the authorities that serve as custodians of our law? Why remove the only thing that is exclusive to nurses from their payroll when those which are exclusive to other professions are retained? This demeanor of the authorities, in our understanding sir, is not different from the local adage-“telling a child to carry salt and at the same time tell the rain maker to make rain”- used to describe sheer hypocrisy and deception

6. Sir, our heart bleeds in pain as we wish to humbly inform you that the profession of nursing science is also the only core healthcare profession whose University Graduates do not participate in the mandatory one year internship training approved for University Graduates of core healthcare disciplines and designed to blend the more theoretically skewed University education with comprehensive clinical expertise for enhanced performance and qualitative client care. This persists even as mounting evidence underscores that nurses need the internship training more than other members of the health team since they stay longer and closer with patients, care for them and as well monitor them round-the-clock.

7. One dicey misconception we have always strived to correct is the unintelligible insinuation that one becomes a super nurse by just bagging a degree in nursing. There is no reason to consider a fresh Graduate Nurse a “super nurse” than to consider a young Medical Doctor (House Officer) a “super doctor”. Therefore, the internship training is paramount to baccalaureate programme of nursing as it is to those of other healthcare disciplines since we are all products of the same theoretically skewed Nigerian Universities and most importantly because nurses are universally entrusted with people’s lives. Those that are entrusted with people’s lives must be adequately trained and competent to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.

8. That the Federal Government has implemented the NUC approved mandatory internship training for the University Graduates of other health professions such as Pharmacy, Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry, Optometry, Medical Laboratory Science, Physiotherapy and so on while that of Nurses has been treated as trivial and non-mandatory despite the formidable niche we occupy in care delivery, as well as our selfless sacrifice and commitment to improved client care, is a pointer that our contributions in the Nigerian health system are either under rated or not in any way appreciated, or both. If not, it may simply imply that some people are deliberately manipulating our health system to run at a level of underperformance ostensibly to promote medical tourism, one of the avenues through which our collective patrimony is siphoned, by denying the caregivers the opportunity of being properly and adequately trained to discharge their responsibilities effectively as is the case with the paradoxical exclusion of nurses from internship training.

9. If the healthcare team is likened to a football team, we would say that the nurse is the goal keeper of the team. A team where the goal keeper is underprepared or not adequately trained remains a bad team because despite the efforts of other team mates in scoring goals and securing their post against the opponent, the team would always concede goals which an adequately trained goal keeper would ordinarily stop. And the fact remains that the success or failure of any team is rightly attributed to the team and not any individual player. This is why equal treatment and motivation in training and remuneration is availed the entirety of players in the team. Exclusion of Nurses from internship training that accommodates other members of the healthcare team is the major factor responsible for the underperformance of our healthcare team with the ugly result of escalation of medical tourism to foreign hospitals as a result of gross loss of Nigerians’ confidence in our own health system. When the healthcare team fails, it can therefore be simply put that the Physicians, the surgeons, the Nurses, the Pharmacists, the Medical Laboratory Scientists, the Physiotherapists, the Optometrists, and so on, have all failed the system. This precarious situation will remain unabated until we do the needful by ensuring that nurses who are entrusted with people’s lives are adequately trained to be able to carry out their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.

Preamble:
The University Graduates of Nursing Science Association, UGONSA, popularly known as the Graduate Nurses Association of Nigeria (GNAN) brings you and the entire senate a superlative nightingale’s greetings. We wish to commend the senate under your leadership for the prompt and positive attention it has been giving to public petitions.
We also commend the senate for its purposeful screening of the ministerial nominees, which in our understanding has signposted to the now sworn-in ministers that a new era, in which we are poised to get it right, has come and Nigerians are going to hold them accountable and responsible for our success or failure through our legislators.
For now all we can assert about the 8thsenate is that it has so far done its task well above average. We therefore commend you for diligently leading the senate to perform at a level that has reposed in us the confidence that the people we elected to represent us and our interest in the red chamber are doing the work we elected them to do despite that you have not had it rosy since your election as President of the Senate.

2. We, the Nigerian Nurses, cannot bear the brunt of the age-long injustice against our profession any longer! Our hearts are full and very heavy. We have cried out our eyes and the tears in our lacrimals are fast drying up. We cannot bear it anymore. Our predicament has so devastated us that we now lack the energy to carry on if the grip of our tight yoke is not timely loosened. This cry for help needs your urgent attention sir because a lot of things have gone wrong, and if your kind intervention is delayed more would still go awry and the consequence for the entire nation would be a preventable precarious situation we shall all regret. To us sir, you and the entire 8thsenate are a knight in shining armour.

3. Sir, it is very unfortunate and regrettable that Nurses are the most visible healthcare professionals in the hospital setting yet the most marginalized in Nigeria’s health system. Over the years the profession of nursing science has received less attention from the authorities and policy makers in our country and the result has been a complete stagnation of the profession and a resultant underperformance of our healthcare delivery system as evidenced by the geometric rise in medical tourism to hospitals abroad over the years.

4. As at date, sir, nursing science is the only profession among the core healthcare professions whose University Graduates are aberrantly under placed on CONHESS 07 grade level after the National youth service corps (NYSC) schemes whereas others are properly placed on at least CONHESS 09 post-NYSC.Despite the provision of the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) Award, 1981 (herein attached as Annexure A) that the profession of Nursing is on parity with that of Pharmacy in Nigeria, as is obtainable in Great Britain, what we see in practice is an aberrant situation where the University Graduates of Nursing are appointed directly on CONHESS 07 post-NYSC while their counterparts in Pharmacy are appointed on CONHESS 09 despite both having identical entry requirements and course duration for the first degree in the University. Pharmacy interns for example, are even appointed on CONHESS 08 pre-NYSC, a grade higher than CONHESS 07, which University Graduates of Nursing are appointed to post-NYSC. Apart from Pharmacy, the University Graduates of other healthcare professions such as Medicine, dentistry, Optometry, Physiotherapy, Medical Laboratory Science, and so on, enjoy at least CONHESS 09 post-NYSC except their nursing counterparts, who are unjustifiably buried on CONHESS 07.

5. Sir, we have challenged the ‘powers-that-be’ in the health sector, including the office of the honourable minister of health to expound on the rationale for such aberration but none till date has adduced any scintilla of reason for such a leaching and monumental injustice yet they carry on as though nothing is at stake with no visible effort to rectify the anomaly.

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.

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"

Agents of change

banjo022:
I won't advice anyone to study political science

why?? Then apart from law which other art courses will u advice them to study

Ray360:
Well, It depends. you are already anticipating a "heart-break" already which might suggest or give a little insight into the type of person you have known her to be and the level of trust you have for her. How old is she? how old are you? There is a level of psychological maturity that can keep her if she has come of age before gaining admission. The university is full of so many enticing things that can distract even the most focused human with a high academic dream of making a first class. From weekend parties to shows in different departments, Clubs, birthdays, end of semester jazz and all the razzmatazz involved. If she is the easily enticed type, then forget it! Instead, channel your time in reading extensively so that you gain admission too. good luck.

tanx bro she is 21 while am 22

Due to jamb wahala and technical errors i received a shocker of my life when my jamb score was sent to me and it was 186 after all the heavy preparations.I applied in one of the state universities in the east to study law.Many people have been telling me to go for change of course but i dont want to do that because i still have passion for that profession..
Now my most honoured kings n Queens in the house what should i do? Can i still get the admission with that score even if is in the conceptional list? At least i reached 180...please you people should help me and move this to front page

naijaboiy:
What you should do is to pass JAMB so you can get your own admission.

bros u re right alhough i got 256

Kingsasian:
Bros, she has left you. Most of the girls that got admitted into that school do not come back the same. Talking from experiences.

share you experience bro..many Kings are ready to learn

naijaboiy:
What you should do is to pass JAMB so you can get your own admission.

bros u re right alhough i got 256

Please pardon my blunders because am not too perfect in writing.
There is this girl that i have been dating for 2years now,we loved each other and we two have been struggling to be admitted in any higher institution for a better future.
Last year she got admission in UNIPORT and she has travelled from my town to her school,leaving me here all alone still struggling to be admitted...my greatest fear is dat she might break the relationship even if she continue wt me she may have a side dude...so my most honoured Kings n Queens in the house what do u suggest? Should i go on with the distance relationship? Or should i look for another girl? No insult pls