The recent feat achieved by the Honorable minister of health
Prof. Isaac Adewole in stemming the suffering and pains of intending and
potential medical interns is indeed laudable.
Before now, medical interns had to suffer treacherous journeys around
the country and extortion searching for placement for the mandatory one year
internship program. You would recall as published on the Nursingworld website,
The Minister had announced that FEC had approved the ministries central
placement plan for medical interns.
According to the statement credited to the Minister -
"Hope is alive for our new medical graduates and the backlog unable to
find placement at institutions - a criteria for their full registration. Prof
Adewole further added that MDCN will from 2018 implement central program to
place, post and fund available 4,461 horsemanship /internship training spaces
across Nigeria
We at Nursingworld Nigeria and Nigerian nurses in general
are deeply saddened by the stance taken by the minister to exclusively address
this issue for the Medical doctors ONLY leaving out other interns like Nurses,
pharmacists, medical laboratory scientist to wallow in agony, extortion and
peril searching for placement positions.
This singular act of biased disposition by the federal
ministry of health has exposed the favoritism that our professional association
NANNM (National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives) has always accused
the ministry of. We cannot at this time afford to further polarize the fragile
peace in the health sector.
While we applaud the Honourable minister for his role in the
actualization of the commencement of one year internship program for graduates
of the bachelor of Nursing science, we appeal to him as the Minister of health
and not the 'minister of Doctors' to ensure that nursing graduates are
mainstreamed into this central posting plan for interns.
We call on the able leadership of NANNM, the Directorate of
Nursing at the FMOH and our able Registrar at the Nursing and Midwifery Council
of Nigeria to engage the ministry in dialogue to remedy this situation.
We also call on the Minsiter of health to urgently make a
volte-face on this exclusive policy and ensure that graduates of nursing
sciences and other health care professionals are carried along in this noble
plan.
Nurse Jennifer Emelue
For: Nursingworld Nigeria
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