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Monday, 6 March 2017

PROPER PLACEMENT: UGONSA WRITES POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION



The Chairman,
Police Service Commission (PSC),
Federal Secreteriat Complex, Phase I,
 Shehu Shagari Way Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria
Sir,
PLACEMENT OF GRADUATES OF BACHELOR OF NURSING SCIENCE (B.N.Sc) DEGREE BELOW PAR: PLEASE, KINDLY RECTIFY THIS ABBERATION

Nightingale's greetings from members of the nursing profession!

2. We humbly write to inform you that time is ripe for correction of the age-long practice of placing the graduates of Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree below par in the Police Service.
 
     i   3. Over the years, graduates of B.N.Sc degree have been appointed to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) 2 (one star) whereas their counterparts in Pharmacy, another core healthcare profession that is on parity with nursing, have been appointed on ASP 1 (two stars).
     
             4. The argument that has been used to sustain this unwarranted inequity, which was that Pharmacists unlike graduate nurses run a one-year internship training upon graduation, has expired and thus no longer holds water as the one year internship training in question has similarly become a compulsory component of the university education of the graduates of B.N.Sc degree (Please kindly refer to attached Annexure A).
 
   iv.           5. Since Nursing is a profession sui generis and by the industrial arbitration panel award of the year 1981 (Annexure B), is on parity in Nigeria with the profession of Pharmacy as is the case in Great Britain, continued underplacement of graduate nurses below their par (their counterparts in Pharmacy) henceforth would be conceived as unspeakable injustice and would portray the police in bad light.

                         6. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as an organization that fights injustice and disorderliness in the land should not be seen as a purveyor of injustice, inequity and discrimination which are the chief sources of acrimony, anarchy, and disorderliness in any society.  

In     7. In the University, admission requirements and course duration for both the Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) and B.N.Sc degree are similar, and as both professions now have a one-year compulsory internship training pre-NYSC (National Youth Service Corps), there is no more logical or rational justification to sustain the age-long unwarranted disparity in their placement.

              8. Aside the academic parity of B.N.Sc and B.Pharm degrees, the nurse also has the highest workload among members of the medical team. In the healthcare delivery system, the nurse is not only the first and last point of client’s call but also the central and coordinating element upon which other members of the healthcare team must rely on to function. Incidentally the nurse, because the indispensable nature of his/her role demands a "must stay” stance with patients round-the-clock, has the highest burden of workload than the rest of the healthcare team members.

        9. It will therefore be against the spirit of equity, fairness, justice and good conscience for the PSC to continue to perpetuate the tradition of aberrant underplacement of graduate nurses on a rank below par now that internship training pre-NYSC has been made a compulsory component of the nurses’ university education. 

                     10. Such act, if continued thereafter, will sully the image and reputation of the police as an agent of the government that promotes national unity and peaceful co-existence and therefore must be avoided at all cost in the interest of the standing reputation of the NPF as an organisation that promotes equity, fairness and peace.

PRAYER
With a strong belief that the NPF does not tolerate injustice, inequity, marginalization and wanton discrimination of any guise, we humbly pray that the age-long unwarranted disparity in placement of the graduates of the B.N.Sc degree and their par, the graduates of B.Pharm degree, be immediately corrected by

                    i. appointing the Graduates of the B.N.Sc degree undergoing training in the current NPF recruitment exercise as ASP 1 (two stars) as has been the case with their par, the graduates of B.Pharm degree.

            ii. compensating the previously appointed graduates of B.N.Sc degree that were aberrantly underplaced on a rank below par with an express promotion with one rank up the ladder to meet up with their par.

                     iii. according the Graduates of B.N.Sc degree similar treatment as their par, the graduates of B.Pharm degree, by the NPF in its future events.

Please kindly accept assurances of our esteemed warmest regard as we appreciate your considered positive response.

Submitted with deepest sense of respect and responsibility!

Signed
                                                                      


Chief (Hon) S.E.O. EGWUENU                                                              Nurse G.I. Nshi
     National President                                                                                National Secretary

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