Lagos Nurses Issues 30 Days Ultimatum to Govt Over Training of Auxiliary Nurses
-The Nurses are to embark on strike if Lagos Government fails to stop the training and recruitment of Auxiliary Nurses into the State workforce
The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) as well as nurses in Lagos State have condemned the training of “Nursing Assistants” by the state’s Employment Trust Fund.
The nurses gave the government 30 working days – with effect from March 12 – to ensure compliance with its demand.
They said government’s failure may cause an industrial action by professional nurse in the state.
Members of the association spoke yesterday in Lagos to redeem “their image”.
NANNM said the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) is the only legal, administrative, corporate and statutory body charged with the performance of specific functions on behalf of the Federal Government to ensure the delivery of safe and effective nursing and midwifery servie to the public through quality education and best practices.
NANNM Chairman Olurotimi Awojide said NMCN is also mandated by law to regulate the standards of Nursing and Midwifery education and practice in Nigeria.
He said it reviews such standards, from time to time, to meet the changing health needs of the society (NMCN Registration, among others) Act Cap N143, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
According to him, it is surprising that Lagos State promotes quackery by training “Nursing Assistants” through the state’s Employment Trust Fund.
The NMCN, Awojide said, should determine what standards of knowledge and skills are to be attained by persons seeking to become members of Nursing and Midwifery and review the standards regularly as circumstances may require.
Explaining the steps taken to address what he called an anomaly, the chairman said when NANNM informed the state’s Employment Trust Fund about the illegality of their training programme, its response was that “it is not a nursing training”.
Awojide said: “Its officials also stated that the content adopted is a general core curriculum, offering youth the skill sets required for catering to the non-medical needs of individuals. However, a thorough analysis of the workbook for the training showed that the organisation lied in its response to our letter. They are actually bastardising the Nursing profession by engaging in an illegal training.”
Specifying the implications of the training, the Coordinator of the Federal Health Institutions Nurses in Lagos State, Comrade Oluyemisi Adelaja, noted that the auxiliary nurses would cause havoc the public would wrongly ascribe to nurses.
Another NMCN official, Shabba Johnson Adetokunbo, alerted the public that its executives have the mandate of nurses in Lagos State (in Federal, state, primary and private health institutions) to ask the Employment Trust Fund to stop the training of “Nursing Assistants” to avoid para the state’s health system.
Source : The Nation Newspaper
