The President of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, AbdlRauf Adeniji, has said the nurses in hospitals across the country are not enough.Adeniji said Nigeria would need at least 350,000 nurses to meet the standard set by the World Health Organisation.
He also said Nigerian nurses were not involved in making decisions on matters concerning health and hospital management.
Adeniji said, “By the WHO standard, a country like Nigeria should have up to 350,000 nurses employed in our hospitals.
“Out of about 120,000 nurses that are employed in Nigeria, 30 per cent belongs to private hospitals. We need to employ at least 10,000 nurses every year until we have enough to manage our hospitals and our population.
“Also, Nigerian nurses are not involved in health policy formulation. For example, when policies are to be formulated nurses are not given any role to play so they are not given an opportunity to say whether the policy will work or not.
“The WHO campaign and International Council of Nurses and Confederation of Midwives say nurses should be prominent in the boardroom.
“There are about 60 health institutions in Nigeria with 13 board members each. In most of the boards, nurses are not represented. We are not only physicians but can also contribute to health policy formulation for the good of the nation.
source: Punch
