From Maurice Okafor,Enugu.
The Forum of the body of heads of nursing services department in Nigeria and that of Principals of Schools in Nigeria’s Federal Health Institutions, have raised the alarm that over 7000 Nigerian nurses left Nigeria in 2021 for greener pasture in other countries.
It further revealed that, annually, over 6000 trained nurses leave Nigeria to other countries for better welfare condition of service.
The Forum dropped this hints at the 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM)/Scientific Conference held at Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu.
The conference was with theme: ‘Nurses Exodus And Nigeria Health System. Who Will Bell The Cat’.
According to the Forum, the interpretation of the ugly situation means that an average of 600 trained Nigerian nurses resign from their jobs monthly to be employed abroad with better welfare packages and conditions of service.
“The trend of migration in the past few years is alarming and we are fast approaching the precipice as a country, though our political leaders are oblivious of this pending crisis.
“More than 6000 Nigeria trained nurses leave Nigeria annually to seek employment abroad, especially the specialist nurses such as critical care nurses, psephology nurses, oncology nurses.
“According to records from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, 7,000 nurses left Nigeria to work abroad in 2021. This translates to 600 nurses leaving per month. Migration has been commonly analyzed in terms of the ‘push-pull’ factor model.”
The Forum, however, described the ugly development as undermining the nation’s health sector as nurses constitutes the largest workforce in the health sector.
They lamented that the educational reforms embarked upon by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria is faced with challenges of content over load curricula and stated that: “This dichotomy brings about serious disintegration, unhealthy rivalry between graduate nurses and diploma nurses, which result in an extra professional dilemma, poor collaboration and weak professional internal cohesion that led to external aggression and infiltration into professional autonomy”.
As a way out of the present dilemma, the Forum tasked the government to explore innovative ways of addressing the exodus of nurses in the health care delivery in Nigeria with focus on proper remuneration, conducive working environment as obtainable in foreign countries.
They also advised the federal government to enter into partnership with states, the private sector and health professionals in the diaspora to employ more nurses and midwives so as to meet up with World Health Organization (WHO) nurse -patient ration.
The Forum advocated for a government policy stipulating the minimum number of years, a government trained health professional must work in Nigeria before being allowed to work abroad.
They equally canvassed for managerial training for nurses on directorate cadre at Administrative Staff College of Nigeria'(ASCON) to boost their managerial acumen.
Responding to questions from news men, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Prof Monday Igwe, appraised the annual general meeting as very formidable in addressing the various problems bedeviling the health sector in Nigeria, from the perspective of the nurses and midwives.
