Last week Tuesday, 20 August 2013, President Goodluck Jona-than approved the appointments of chairmen and members of boards of the 42 federal government parastatals and agencies in accordance with the enabling law establishing them. The most shocking of these appointments was the insensitive decision to appoint a medical doctor, Dr Abisola Clark, to head the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) governing board. This is viewed by Nigerian nurses as a deliberate attempt by the federal ministry of health to subjugate nurses and midwives in Nigeria and throw the health care sector into yet another chaos. It is important to note that in the 21st century, nursing profession has its defined body of knowledge specific to the profession, and continues to develop this knowledge through research and practice as they relate. Therefore, this appointment is a planned and calculated attempt to compromise the autonomy of nursing profession and block some important reforms in Nursing Education and Practice currently being undertaken by NMCN. On the basis of a number of case examples, members of the medical profession in general and medical doctors in particular sometimes do not work like team players as in the case of their rejection of the election of a professor of physiology as Provost of College of Medicine and their volatile resolutions at the health summit organized by the NMA in February 2013. We call on President Jonathan through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, as a matter of urgent national health importance, to withdraw this appointment to avoid looming industrial crisis and find the most competent and qualified nurse in Nigeria to chair the Board of NMCN. Using any criteria, either academic or political, we believe a qualified person can be found among the Nigerian nurses to head the board. Nigerians can only get the healthcare delivery outcome that they deserve if, and only if, the federal government and state governments across the federation stand to initiate policies to check excesses of extremism in the Nigerian healthcare industry and reform medical education to be structured to reduce its almost exclusive focus on the acquisition of scientific and clinical facts and emphasize the development of skills, behaviours and attitudes. These include the ability to manage information, understanding of the basic concepts of human interactions and possession of management, communication and team work skills. Suleiman Dauda, RN, Damaturu,
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 17:30:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015