Plateau Governor, Caleb Mutfwang has lamented poor rating and recognition of nursing in Nigeria as he urged government to do more for the profession.
The Governor said this at a book launch titled “Challenges and triumph of the nursing profession in Nigeria” written by Prof Kola Oyedepo.
Mutfwang said the centrality of the nursing profession to the health sector cannot be overemphasise, and that the contribution of the profession is too enormous.
He therefore called on policymakers, trainers and stakeholders to make sure that they promote the profession to be able to fulfil it mandate for which it exists.
“Nurses are very central in the healthcare delivery system, Midwives are very central to the issue of birth, we must make sure that the professionalism in the sector is enhanced in every way that is possible.
“I want to congratulate the author of this book for giving the nurses further tools for them to work. As governor, we are going to ensure that the health sector is looked at comprehensively.
“This is to make sure that the nursing profession within the health sector is given its pride of place, we are going to make policy pronouncement, we are going to invest in training to enhance the profession in our state,” the Gov. said.
The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr Faruk Abubakar, noted that nurses play a pivotal role in healthcare delivery.
Represented by Mr Emmanuel Udontre, Director, Planning Research and Statistics, NMCN, Abubakar said that nurses are the autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings.
According to him, advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and patients, health system management, and education are key roles of nurses.
He called on government at all levels to begin to show more care to the nurses for the big role they perform in the healthcare system.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of of Health (FMoH), Mrs Daju Kachallom, also stated that the nursing and Midwifery profession occupies a unique and vital place within the healthcare system.
Represented by Mrs Francisca Okafor, Director of Nursing, FMoH, Kachallom said that nurses and Midwives are compassionate, skilled and tireless professionals.
She said that they often be the first and last point of care for patients, stressing that they must be treated with dignity.
Kachallom stated that nurses and Midwives provide comfort in times of distress, guidance during moments of uncertainty and skillful assistance during the most critical phases of life.
She however thanked the author of the book for dishing out such enormous knowledge in the medical profession through the book.
The book Author, Oyedepo, disclosed that he was been motivated to write the book to encourage practitioners of nursing and Midwifery profession to be committed to the profession and to seek more knowledge.
The Professor added that he was also motivated to write the book so that people would give more recognition to the practitioners of nursing profession, saying that nurses give 70 to 75 per cent assistance to the medical profession.
Oyedepo who was responding to the allegation of nurses of not being part of President Bola Tinubu’s Ministerial nominees, blamed the nurses for that, adding that they are not projecting themselves as well as they ought to be.
According to him, nurses have a lot of information that could revive healthcare but they are not projecting such information in the right direction, hence they are relegated to the background.
“Information is power but when this is not given out in the right direction, there is bound to be setbacks, nurses have a lot of information but they are not projecting them out, there is a lot of advocacy they need to be doing to make them be recognised.
“If you don’t say I am here, nobody will recognise you. Out of the three professions in the health fields, pharmacy, nursing and medicine, nurses carry almost 70 per cent of the healthcare workers population.
“They are not showing up but they want to be in power, this is why the people in power just ignore them,” Oyedepo said.
He called nurses and Midwives to make use of his book to gain more knowledge about the profession and way out of the challenges confronting the profession.
. TheWitness
