The recent revelation that there are only 125, 000 registered nurses servicing the health needs of over 200 million Nigerians is lamentable. The President of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Abdurafiu Adeniji, who made the startling disclosure at the 7th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the association in Abuja, explained that the shortage was due to the continuous exodus of qualified Nigerian nurses to overseas.
The President of NANNM stated that Nigeria required a minimum of 800,000 nurses to meet its health needs. He also decried the toll COVID-19 pandemic had taken on the nursing profession in the country. According to Adeniji, “Nigeria is faced with inadequate manpower as regards nurses. As we are producing them, some countries of the world are already waiting by the corner, luring them with good packages and conducive working environment.” Adeniji also admitted that many registered nurses with years of experience are retiring on a daily basis without any immediate replacement plan.
We decry the shortage of registered nurses in the nation’s health sector and call on the government to urgently address the worrisome situation. Nurses are very essential in the nation’s health care delivery system. Among the entire health workers, they are the ones that mostly attend to the needs of the patients. As the backbone of medical services, their absence always has telling effects on the healthcare delivery system.
Therefore, their importance in the health care system cannot be over-emphasised. Without doubt, they are among the frontline health workers in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. We enjoin the government to do everything possible to enhance their welfare.
At present, the working environment of Nigerian nurses is not encouraging. Like other professionals in the sector, they are poorly paid and lack basic working equipment. The annual mass exodus of Nigerian nurses to foreign countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East, cannot be divorced from high remuneration packages and conducive working environment in those countries.
Also, the general insecurity in the country, high crime rate and poor governance are some of the factors that can make Nigerians, including nurses, to desire to work abroad. However, the migration of Nigerian nurses to overseas is not going to stop so soon, except the government addresses the problem of poor remuneration and inclement working environment.
We, therefore, urge the federal and state governments to quickly address the challenges facing the nursing profession. They can do this by increasing their remuneration and improve their working conditions. There should be enough room for professional growth and development. To stem the mass exodus of Nigerian nurses and indeed other medical workers to foreign countries, there should be a minimum number of years such professionals should work in Nigeria before being allowed to work abroad.
The number of nurses in the country should be increased to meet the nurse-patient ratio. Unfortunately, there are many trained and unemployed nurses that are forced to take up jobs in private hospitals where they are not well-remunerated. We urge their employers to enhance their pay. Doing so will motivate them to increase their productivity.
We urge all tiers of government to recruit more nurses to fill the gap created by the exodus of Nigerian nurses abroad. Beyond the recruitment of additional manpower, the government should invest more on training of nurses. There is need to establish more schools of nursing across the country while private organisations can equally be encouraged to take interest in nursing education.
The government can also offer scholarships and other incentives to attract more students to study nursing. Nurses are critical stakeholders in the health sector and should be adequately motivated for optimum performance. We believe that good policies by the government will also go a long way to discourage them from migrating abroad. The Federal Government must create the enabling environment for the creation of more jobs for unemployed Nigerians to stem the mass exodus of many Nigerians to foreign countries.
