UHC: Association urges FG to invest in nursing workforce
UHC: Association urges FG to invest in nursing workforce
Workforce
By Cecilia Ologunagba
Abuja, April 14, 2020 (NAN) Mr Adeniji Alani, the President, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), has advised the Federal Government to invest in nursing workforce to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country.
Alani told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that nurses needed to go through academic and professional training before they could be qualified to practise.
“It takes many years to train a professional nurse and there is no other way of training and preparing nurses and midwives than through normal channels.
“The channels include going through a period of academic training, intermix with clinical exposure up to the point of taking professional examination, registration and licencing them,’’ he said.
Alani said government at all levels should support the workers by providing enabling environment for them to work and the legal framework for their training.
While calling for the establishment of more nursing schools, especially at the university level, to train the highly needed professionals, he said there should also be the certification, legislation and supervision of the profession.
Alani recalled that in the 70s, Nigerian hospitals and health professionals were hot cakes in the international market.
“Our products are only limited to Nigeria and this is why there is medical tourism outside country.
“Whereas, around 1970 Nigeria was a destination of choice for people to come and seek health care services.
“Those were the days, very glorious days, when nursing and midwifery services were in right positions to discuss, to contribute, collaborate and cooperate with doctors, pharmacists, lab scientists; and they were given pride of place.
“Then, the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital was rated number four among the Commonwealth nations, so let the government face squarely the training of nurses and midwives, which is at the centre of services for healthcare system.
“While the patient is number one, the nurses are the ones to care for the patients; so the government should recruit nurses and midwives massively.
“Apart from the recruitment, there must be training and retraining of health workers; we must recruit nurses on regular basis and work towards how to retain nurses in the workforce.
“We equally need to empower nurses to do their role as clinical leaders in their services; equally, they should be empowered to participate in governance and in policy formulation,” he said.
He added that specialisation should be encouraged and supported.
“For instance, public health nurses should be the ones handling infectious diseases; psychiatric nurses and other specialised nurses should also be encouraged to deliver their services.
“Nurses should be given ‘Doctors of Practitioners’ the way it is in U.S and UK to compensate for the shortage of manpower in the medical sciences.
“Of course, there is no country that has ever met its health care professional needs. If they are empowered, they will be able to deliver better services,” he said.
Alani also advised the government to implement the recommendations of World Health Organisation (WHO) on nursing.
According to him, WHO had on April 7 inaugurated provided a new in-depth report that looked at the largest component of the health workforce globally.
The report, he said, was inaugurated to commemorate the 2020 World Health Day, highlighting nursing contributions and confirming that investment in the nursing profession was a benefit to the society and not a cost.
Alani said the report resolved by calculation that the whole world needed about nine million nurses and midwives to meet the challenges and to bring universal health care delivery to the doorstep of individuals.
The report, he said, however, called on governments to do the right thing by investing in the profession and to watch their population benefit from the amazing work that only nurses could do.
“About 90 per cent of all nurses are female, yet few nurses are found in senior health leadership positions – the bulk of those positions are held by men.
“But when countries enable nurses to take leadership roles, for example by having a government Chief Nursing Officer (or its equivalent), and nursing leadership programmes, conditions of nurses will improve,” he said of the report.
According to him, the report similarly wants WHO and its partners to modernise professional nursing regulation by harmonising education and practice standards and using systems that can recognise and process nursing credentials globally.
NAN reports that WHO declared 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife and the year is significant for the agency in the context of strengthening nursing and midwifery for Universal Health Coverage. (NAN)
CIA/MAS/SA
Edited by Moses Solanke/Salif Atojoko
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