IN RETROSPECT: UGONSA REJECTED CALL FOR "ALLIED" TO RUN NURSING DIRECTORATE CADRE, LABELLED PROPONENTS AS IRRESPONSIBLE JOKERS-March 2016

 THOSE THAT WANT PROFESSIONALISM IN NURSING TO BE WATERED DOWN ARE IRRESPONSIBLE JOKERS-UGONSA- Date of Original Publication was 24th of March, 2016

The University Graduates of Nursing Science Association, UGONSA, has described the Nurses campaigning for Unified Schemes of Service and the promotion of ‘allied degree holders’ to directors of nursing as irresponsible jokers whose sole vision for the profession is to water down its professionalism.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Chief (Hon) S.E.O Egwuenu, and National Secretary, Nur. G.I. Nshi.

The statement read, “The attention of UGONSA has been drawn to a Communiqué circulating in the electronic media purportedly issued at a conference held by some Nurses at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State from 14^th to 16^th of March, 2016.

”We found it laughable that the communiqué recommended inter alia that Nurses who had possessed their degrees in Health Education, Sociology, Psychology, Guidance and Counseling, Nutrition, and Public Health, obtained from various Universities before 2016 should be considered for promotion to the directorate cadre of Nursing and that all stakeholders in Nursing should work together for implementation of the proposed Unified Schemes of Service.

”We were not taken aback by such unintelligible and retrogressive recommendations because the irresponsible circus that is bent on burying professionalism in Nursing was the sponsor and brain behind the conference, which was just one of their several gimmicks of trying unsuccessfully to shoot down the ever rising professionalism in Nursing that they so much abhor with obtuse gruesomeness.

”As usual their antics never changed, the only thing that changed was the Venue, which this time around was not in a Hotel but in a Teaching Hospital. Their antics remained the cosmetic mention of internship with a clause such as “all should support the actualization of internship for Graduates of B.N.Sc” then quickly followed by their ulterior motive, which is to make case for the so-called “allied degree holders” to run the directorate cadre of Nursing and to whip up support for the unpopular and sinister Unified Schemes of Service (USS).

”Their rapacious and puerile elaboration on the need for all stakeholders “to support the proposed Unified Schemes of Service for Nurses and the promotion to directorate cadre of Nursing of holders of degrees, which in their warped imagination, are purportedly allied to Nursing such as Health Education, Sociology, Psychology, Guidance and Counseling, Nutrition, Public Health, and so on” is not new but just a futile attempt to resuscitate their woefully failed plot to murder professionalism in Nursing.

”If not that selective amnesia has eaten deep into their memory, how could they have quickly forgotten that Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the statutory regulatory body for Nursing Profession in Nigeria, had verily clarified that no Profession is allied to Nursing and that any Registered Nurse who wishes to ply the directorate (Officer’s) cadre of Nursing MUST possess a minimum of first degree in Nursing and that this position of the NMCN was upheld by the National Council on Establishment (NCE) at its 37^th Meeting held in Akure ,Ondo State with consequent incorporation into the Schemes of Service in Use in the Civil Service of the Federation that possession of first degree in Nursing is a Sine qua non of  running the officers’ cadre ?

The Association also stated that it is not against the aspiration of any individual or group but warned that such should not be overzealously used to jeopardize other people’s rights or aspirations.

”For the umpteenth time we wish to re-emphasize that we are not against RN holders rising above their statutory terminal grade level of 14 to reach the directorate grade level of 17 as the proponents of the USS desperately seek, but cannot idly sit back and watch such aspiration being mendaciously used to hold the actualization of the internship and proper placement of Graduates of B.N.Sc degree to ransom. As our Prayer has specifically remained that the Nursing Officer’s cadre should be reviewed to include the post of interns/NYSC Nursing Officers, we seriously advise the proponents of the USS to narrow down their own prayer specifically to elongation of the terminal end of the  Nursing superintendent cadre from grade level 14 to 17 or even beyond, probably to permanent secretary level, than the provocative subterfuge of proposing the sinister USS that seeks to unify  the ‘non-unifiable’ Nursing Officer’s cadre with the Nursing Superintendent cadre ostensibly to stall the realization of the internship.

”That other multiple cadre professions such as Pharmacy, Medical Lab Science, and Optometry run internship without any USS is a clear confirmation of our assertion that USS was floated by those that derive joy from the precarious under placement of  Graduate Nurses on CONHESS 07 post-NYSC and therefore are not comfortable that internship will not only equip them with comprehensive and pervasive clinical skills but also enhance their proper placement on CONHESS 09 Post-NYSC, as is obtainable with their counterparts in other healthcare professions, and hence  are madly bent on truncating the realization of the internship with their satanic USS.

”We wish to challenge the proponents of these inordinate aspirations to furnish us with information on courses allied to other professions such as Medicine, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy, Med Lab Science, Physiotherapy, and so on, and as well on any multiple cadre profession that aspires to run a Unified Schemes of Service as these dying cabal want us to do in nursing.

The Association further lamented that such ignominious self serving actions of some Nurses has made the profession a butt of jokes and a laughing stock in the comity of professions in Nigeria, mostly as they often display their self-induced morbid ignorance of tenets of professionalism in the open.

”Does their senseless action not portray that they are ecliptically ignorant of the fact that the statuses of diploma and degree holders in multi-cadre professions, for example pharmacy, Medical Lab Science, Engineering, etc, are clearly defined and differentiated in terms of placement, career progression and remuneration?

”Is the promotion of RN diplomates with degrees other than degree in nursing with the schemes of service for Nursing Officers not a blatant aberration especially as the so called ‘allied courses’ have their own separate schemes of service?

”It severely  defies rationality or logic how these jokers come to erroneously conceive that a single qualification or degree can grant an individual the eligibility for promotion and career progression in two separate or distinct professions.

”It has become imperative to  state unequivocally that we are not opposed to the promotion of Nurses with degrees in area other than nursing, but they should be promoted with the schemes, other than the nursing officers’ scheme, for which their degrees qualify them for such promotion accordingly and appropriately.

 “We hereby call on discerning Nurses that truly love this profession, to disregard the empty distractions of these confused elements and continue to develop themselves along Nursing Professional lines as this is the best way to promote professionalism and remain strongly relevant in the face of changing trends in health, illness and care delivery”, the statement said.