-As Nursing Council inducts 53 foreign-trainednurses
The President, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) Comrade Nurse Abdrafiu Alani Adeniji, has urged the newly inducted foreign-trained nurses to take up the challenge of harmonising their education and expertise with the local and national reality, as evidence based practice is key in the day to day professional practice.
Comrade Adeniji, who is also the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria(NMCN) Registration Committee chairman, congratulated parents of the inductees, the inductees, the leadership of NMCN and the various universities these people have graduated from, noting that this goes a long way to reassure healthcare consumers to repose confidence in these young professionals.
His words: “As we all know, there is limited university offering Nursing at Bachelor degree level presently in Nigeria, and to compensate the shortage of this category of nurses, there is the need to respond to the societal needs of provision of adequately trained and certificated nurses.
“Therefore those parents that can afford financing education of their wards outside the shore of the country are equally congratulated for the success of their children at the Nigeria Nursing Council Professional qualifying examination, a prerequisite for registration and licensing of professional nurses in Nigeria”, he remarked.
The NANNM President, who spoke with pharmanewsonline in an exclusive chat, also commended the induction exercise as a giant stride towards ridding the healthcare system of quacks, sanitizing the system and fortifying the healthcare system with quality and safe healthcare services, noting that ‘safe staffing saves lives, is the universal slogan.
Speaking during the induction ceremony of 53 foreign-trained nurses in Abuja on Monday, Registrar of the Council, Alhaji Faruk Umar said it was the first time nurses of foreign trained institutions were being formerly inducted into the profession ever-since it started registering nurses trained outside the country.
He said the inducted nurses were trained in Cyprus, Egypt, Ghana, Georgia, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Niger Republic, Philippines, Sudan, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said following the approval of new registration policies and procedures which took effect in January 2018, applicants applied and attended a screening interview irrespective of their registration status in the countries of training, and then proceeded for a six month adaptation programme in designated centres in order to prepare for the council’s professional examination for general nurses.
He said the new set of foreign trained nurses sat for the professional exam in 2018, adding that out of 247 applicants that sat for the exam, 100 were successful.
The registrar enjoined the inductees to be willing to learn from their colleagues already working in the clinical areas, accept corrections, avoid unnecessary mistake as well as improve where necessary.
The best performing inductee, Mary Bukola Ibitoye, who graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana said the adaptation programme was a great experience with room for improvement in the future.
 Comrade Nurse Abdrafiu Alani Adeniji, has urged the newly inducted foreign-trained nurses to take up the challenge of harmonising their education and expertise with the local and national reality, as evidence-based){kind=link}