Training of quacks nurses by some unaccredited health school in Nigeria especially in Jos plateau is becoming the vogue, training of quacks nurses by health care workers across all levels in Nigeria is gradually becoming the new normal and major malpractice worsening the country's health care system. The proliferation of quackery in the nursing profession can be linked to many sources. This includes doctors and nurses' greed and selfishness in the need to make mega-profits from practice in private hospitals and clinics; lack of political will and commitment towards the health sector; poor regulation and routine supervision by professional associations; ignorance and misinformation. Effects of training quacks include increase maternal and childhood mortality, increase unemployment rate of registered nurses and midwifery, discredit medical and nursing education, poor treatment outcome in many hospitals and weakened healthcare system. Recommended solutions are: improving state health insurance, improving financial coverage, enforcing the law against quackery and increase awareness in local communities.
Many hospitals especially in jos plateau Auxiliary students dominated the process, this course many death and injuries people show their less concern about health issues.
‘All Auxiliary Nurses Are Quacks’ statistics have shown that,
There are about 209 of them regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. There are 126 schools in the south and 83 in the north.
The total approved slots in the 209 schools is about 8,485. Out of this number, 4,995 is from the South while 3,490 is from the northern part of the country. Twenty-five schools are embargoed in the south and two in the north.
It is no gain saying that the southern part of the country is more advanced in terms of Western education and has more schools of nursing and midwifery. The council is ready to accredit more schools of nursing and midwifery. The admission quota has been increased to 100, and is based on how an institution meets the requirements including having a hospital, manpower and infrastructure and other guidelines.
There is need for northern states to establish more schools of nursing and midwifery. This would help provide the needed manpower for healthcare in the states, complement government efforts as well as bridge the gap between the number of nursing and midwifery institutions in the southern part of the country compared to the north.
If any state is interested in establishing a new school of nursing and midwifery, we give it the guidelines, and if it meets up, there is nothing that will stop the council from giving the institution accreditation. Also any state that makes request for 50 admission slots for instance, in an institution, we will assess it based on the availability of man power and infrastructure and if it meets the requirements, we give the allocation. Says the Nigerian council of nursing and midwifery.
There is need for more nurses and midwives to work in the communities, and this can only be achieved when more indigenes are trained through the institutions in their areas,not Auxiliaries
There is also need for well to do individuals and faith organizations in the north to establish hospitals which would in turn help in the establishment of Nursing and Midwifery institutions.
Only Kaduna, Benue and Kogi have faith based Nursing and Midwifery institutions while those in the remaining 16 northern states are all owned by the government. This is unlike the southern part of the country where some are owned by faith based organizations.
Also statics have shown that there are over 173,574 registered nurses and 114, 468 midwives in our register. The numbers continues to grow on daily basis as more people register.
In terms of the training, an average of about 5,699 nursing ( general nursing and post basic nursing) are produced annually while about 2, 696 midwives (this includes basic, post basic and community midwifery) are produced averagely annually. So if you add them together, you will have an average of about 8,395 nurses and midwives produced annually in the country.
It also depends on the numbers of nurses and midwives that registered for exams because they usually have exams four times in a year, two for general nursing and two for midwifery.
The criteria for denying a school of nursing and midwifery accreditation?
They have a check list for accrediting institution, such as man power, infrastructure, library, transport utility services, hostel accommodation to mention a few.
Any institution that cannot score 50% from the checklist, loses accreditation. Some institutions lost accreditation because they lack a hospital; you need both theoretical and practical training. The hospital should also be worthy to provide training. The hospital should have nothing less than 250 beds.
Many private hospitals in the country particularly small ones utilize the services of auxiliary nurses.
There is nothing like auxiliary nursing. When you say auxiliary nurse, it refers to a quack. They don’t recognize them and they are a threat to the health of Nigerians, and the nursing profession in the country.
As far as we are concerned, any hospital operating with auxiliary nurses, is operating with quack nurses, because they are quacks. They are not competent, to deliver nursing care and members of the public that access services from such hospitals are doing so at their own risk.
Hospitals are supposed to ensure that nurses are qualified, registered and licensed to practice as nurses. If you want to set up a hospital, you send the list of nurses to their organization, they then send their officers to verify, because they have verification offices which verify whether a person is qualified to practice or not.
Also trained nurses are issued practicing licenses. A practicing licensed lasts for a period of three years, and before the expiration ,the nurse is expected to undergo a mandatory development program which is attached with a two credit unit. You must attend it before your license is renewed after three years, at least then your knowledge is updated and you will have the current skills to improve your capacity and productivity at the hospital level.
We are calling our government to look at this issue and fine out a welding solutions to the problem of health issued especially in plateau state.
Amb. Sanusi Muhseen Harun.
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