…as HLC holds 2014 workshop for nurse leaders
(By Temitope Obayendo)
Following the recent statistics of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which shows that Nigeria loses about 2000 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age every day, the Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), professor Innocent Ujah, has on nurses in the country to explore all techniques at their disposal to ensure drastic decrease in infant and maternal mortality in Nigeria.
Ujah made the remarks at the 2014 interactive workshop for nurse leaders held at NIMR hall, Yaba, on 11 April. The annual event was organised by Healthy Living Communications.
The NIMR boss who was a special guest at the occasion as well as the host, noted that there was still much to be done by nurses regarding awareness campaigns on the safety of caesarean section for both mother and child.
The experienced obstetrician and gynaecologist disclosed that one of the major reasons infant and maternal mortality persists in the country is the misconceptions of the majority of people about surgery, which has led to the death of thousands of women and children.
Ujah stated that to remedy the situation, nurses must do much of ’talking to’ and not ‘ talking at’ pregnant women in order to avert further loss of lives at childbirth.
Earlier on at the forum, the former Head of Nursing Department, Health Services Commission, Lagos State, Mrs. Victoria Oloruntegbe, addressed the participants on: “Pre and Post Retirement Issues and Challenges Facing the Nurse Leader”.
Oloruntegbe described life after retirement and explained why every nurse leader must make adequate plans for it in ahead of time. She also highlighted some challenges associated with retirement, which include: “time issues, finance issues, loss of power and authority, accommodation problems, medical treatment issues, transportation, and so on.” She however assured the participants not to fret over the challenges as strategies are already in place to help them cope.
Categorising the coping strategies into “government input” and “nurse leader input”, the veteran nurse and midwife revealed that the government input is already in place, through the enactment of the Pension Reforms Act 2014. She added that, on the part of the nurse leader, it is very essential for each one to have proper finance management, investment in bonds, savings, properties, healthy lifestyle, health insurance policy, etc.
Also addressing the health professionals, Mr. Emmanuel Oriakhi, the MD/CEO of Healthy Living Communications, expressed his appreciation for their presence and explained that it became imperative to have a forum for nurses having held different fora for general practitioners, surgeons, medical laboratory scientists, paediatricians, and other health personnel.
He listed the objectives of the forum to include: exchange of ideas with health care operators; updates on new products and techniques as they emerge; examination of issues of national importance to health care delivery; and review of industry professional developments as they affect the practice.
One of the participants, Mrs Titilayo Adegun, expressed gratitude to the organisers of the workshop for consistently keeping nurse leaders abreast of trends in the profession for the past three years.
