Nigeria need more nurses, says Midwifery council

The Federal Government has said that the number of nurses practising in the country’s public healthcare sector is not adequate for the responsibilities facing the public healthcare sector in the country.

The FG said that it was worried about the migration of nurses in the country to other oversees.

The Registrar of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Dr Faruk Abubakar, who spoke at the matriculation ceremony of Merit College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu, Imo state, said that instead of the 800, 000 nurses needed to attend to healthcare issues in the country, the public healthcare sector had less than 400,000 nurses.

Abubakar said, “There is a brain drain in the nursing sector. We need about 800, 000 nurses to take care of the challenges in our public healthcare sector but unfortunately we have less than 400, 000 nurses. But the good news is that the migration of our nurses to abroad is an indication that our nurses are to be reckoned with globally.”

He commended the proprietor of Merit College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu, Dr Chika Ugbaja for establishing the institution to raise people who would help to tackle the challenges confronting the nation’s public healthcare sector.

Abubakar said, “I commend Dr Chika Ugbaja, for establishing this school in Nigeria after many years of practice in the United States. Merit College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu, will raise quality nurses and midwives.”

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Prosper Obinna, said that the state government was committed to collaborating with the College to solving the healthcare needs of the people of the state.

The bishop of Orlu Catholic Diocese, Rev’d Augustine Ukwuoma, said with the establishment of Merit College of Nursing Sciences Orlu, the healthcare needs of the people of the state would be ameliorated.