COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF 18TH NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE AND SCIENTIFIC UPDATE OF THE UNIVERSITY GRADUATES OF NURSING SCIENCE ASSOCIATION (UGONSA) HELD AT PRIMARY HEALTHCARE TUTORS CENTRE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL (UCH), IBADAN, OYO STATE, BETWEEN 25TH AND 29TH SEPTEMBER, 2017.
Tag: NURSING REFORMATION SUMMIT
Theme: NURSING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE: DESIGN FOR DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING?
PROFESSIONAL SESSION’S THEMES
Tag: NURSING REFORMATION SUMMIT
Theme: NURSING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE: DESIGN FOR DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING?
PROFESSIONAL SESSION’S THEMES
- EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NURSING PRACTICE: A SALIENT TOOL FOR THE GROWTH OF NURSES AND NURSING PROFESSION IN NIGERIA.
- CLINICAL SUPERVISION AND MENTORSHIP IN NURSING: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR NIGERIAN NURSES.
- ADDRESSING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN NURSING PRACTICE.
- ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROSPECTS FOR NURSES: IMMUNITY FOR RECESSION
SCIENTIFIC UPDATE THEMES
- A CRITIQUE OF THE STUDY: HOW NURSES AND THEIR WORK ENVIRONMENT AFFECT PATIENT EXPERIENCES OF THE QUALITY OF CARE.
- PERCEPTION OF NURSE TRAINERS AND STAKEHOLDERS ON THE OBSTACLES TO UPGRADING BASIC NURSING EDUCATION IN TEACHING HOSPITALS IN ENUGU STATE.
Preamble
UGONSA highly appreciates the Federal Government of Nigeria for all its efforts to make good the lots of the common man; Mykelite Travels and Georgian College in Ontario, Canada – the runner of graduate certificate programme in Acute Complex Care Nursing, our good partner for the event; Prof. TemitopeAlonge, the Chief Medical Director,University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan; the Government and good People of Oyo State for providing a peaceful and hospitable atmosphere for our National Professional Conference and Scientific Update, and the Oyo State Chapter of UGONSA for a well-organized hosting.
The opening ceremony
The flag-off of the event was done by the Executive Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Governor AbiolaAjimobi, ably represented by the Deputy Governor, His Excellency Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo. The event was chaired by Chief (Hon).Solomon E.O.Egwuenu, UGONSA National President. Other Dignitaries that graced the event included Dr. TemitopeAlonge , the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, represented by Dr.Afuwape, the deputy CMAC of the hospital; Dr. Saleh N. Garba, the keynote presenter, a member of board of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and the head of department of Nursing Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, represented by Dr. Patricia O. Onianwa; Mr.TaiwoAjiboye, the Director Nursing services, Oyo State Ministry of Health; Mr.Adeyeni Abdul-Lateef Babatunde, the National President, National Association of Perioperative Nurses (NAPON) among others.
There were goodwill messages from the dignitaries. Professional Sessions were anchored by Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver, Nurse Ojo OpeyemiIdowu, Nurse Ekuma-Ojim Cynthia Judith and Nurse Nshi Goodluck Ikechukwu. Scientific Updates were handled by Nurse Olufunmilola Akintayo and Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver.
The flag-off of the event was done by the Executive Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Governor AbiolaAjimobi, ably represented by the Deputy Governor, His Excellency Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo. The event was chaired by Chief (Hon).Solomon E.O.Egwuenu, UGONSA National President. Other Dignitaries that graced the event included Dr. TemitopeAlonge , the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, represented by Dr.Afuwape, the deputy CMAC of the hospital; Dr. Saleh N. Garba, the keynote presenter, a member of board of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and the head of department of Nursing Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, represented by Dr. Patricia O. Onianwa; Mr.TaiwoAjiboye, the Director Nursing services, Oyo State Ministry of Health; Mr.Adeyeni Abdul-Lateef Babatunde, the National President, National Association of Perioperative Nurses (NAPON) among others.
There were goodwill messages from the dignitaries. Professional Sessions were anchored by Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver, Nurse Ojo OpeyemiIdowu, Nurse Ekuma-Ojim Cynthia Judith and Nurse Nshi Goodluck Ikechukwu. Scientific Updates were handled by Nurse Olufunmilola Akintayo and Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver.
RESOLUTIONS
After extensive deliberations on a variety of issues affecting the nursing profession in general and University Graduates of Nursing Science in particular and other burning national issues, the congress resolved as follows:
1. The congress-in-session appreciated the president MuhammaduBuhari-led Federal Government for its fight against corruption and urged it to beam its search light of anticorruption on the health sector. However, the congress observed that any fight against corruption that does not positively impact the economic situation of the citizens is as good as an exercise in futility and therefore urge the federal government to take additional steps towards improving the economic conditions of the ordinary Nigerian.
2. The congress implored all potential and practicing nurses to regularly acquaint themselves with the tenets of public relations in nursing practice so as to improve the public image of the nursing profession and make it more endearing to healthcare clients and the general public.
3. The Congress called on the government and appropriate authorities to recognize the importance of advanced education in nursing practice and thus commence remuneration of nurses that have acquired additional higher qualifications in nursing accordingly.
4. Congress commended the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria for the laudable step of registration and licensing of some nursing specialties at postgraduate levels vis-à-vis the following M.Sc programmes {Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Nursing Education, Nursing Administration, and Community Health Nursing} and implored the council to extend such registration to every other specialties in nursing to encourage clinical specialization at the postgraduate level of nursing education.
5. The congress-in-Session observed that Medical-Surgical Nursing (Med-Surg) is a conglomerate of many nursing specialties such as Perioperative Nursing, Accident and Emergency Nursing, Anaesthetic Nursing, Orthopaedic Nursing, Burns and Plastic Nursing, Intensive Care Nursing, Cardiothoracic Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Nursing, etc and called on departments of nursing sciences in Nigerian universities currently running only academic M.Sc and P.hD Medical-Surgical Nursing to also commence running the individual clinical specialties that make up the Med-Surg as separate courses at post-graduate levels since they are, unlike Med-Surg, registrableby Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN). This will afford nurses, who want to specialize in clinical specialties, the opportunity of having Masters and PhD in their chosen clinical specialties of nursing practice that are registrable by NMCN. Consultancy in Nursing Practice will be more feasible when specialist nurses start having Masters and P.hD in their clinical specialties against the current situation where they operate with only post-basic qualifications.
6. The congress strongly frowned at the continued subjugation of Nursing Services as a division in the department of Hospital Services under the headship of a Physician and called on the federal government to implement, without further delay, the Yayale Ahmed presidential committee report on harmony in the health sector, which inter alia recommended a fully-fledged autonomous Department of Nursing Service in the Federal Ministry of Health. The Congress equally demanded the immediate upgrade of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) to a “grade A” regulatory agency by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
7. Congress advised nurses to give more to research activities to continually generate current data for evidence-based nursing practice and called on governments at all levels, Professional Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations to make grants available for enhancement of research in Nursing Sciences.
8. The congress hailed the management of the few hospitals that have commenced internship training for the graduates of Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree as approved by the National Council on Establishment (NCE) and called on the government to compel those that are yet to implement it to urgently commence such.
9. The congress-in-session noted that the recent approved internship training for B.N.Sc graduates by the NCE was not done in the spirit of the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) award of the year 1981, which categorically specified that in Nigeria the profession of Nursing is on parity with the profession of Pharmacy as is the case in Great Britain. Appointing graduates of B.N.Sc degree on CONHESS 07 as interns and on CONHESS 08 post-NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) whereas their counterparts in Pharmacy with Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) are appointed on CONHESS 08 as interns and on CONHESS 09 post-NYSC is a distortion of the parity prescribed by the IAP award. Congress therefore called on all the concerned authorities to set machinery in motion for rectification of this anomaly. For the avoidance of doubt, the correct placement is CONHESS 08{GL 9} for nurse interns and CONHESS 09{GL 10} post NYSC.
10. The congress called on all stakeholders in the nursing profession to recognize the non-negotiable need for unity and come together to pursue a common goal to promote the professional growth and development of nurses and the nursing profession.
11. The congress strongly frowned at the skyrocketing rate of quackery and the slap on the wrist penalty prescribed by the Establishment Act of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) as a punishment for quackery, which it described as rather an enabler of quackery than a deterrent, and called on the National Assembly to urgently review the NMCN establishment Act for tougher penalties against quackery and for greater leverage for nurses to perform in the full range of skills and competencies for which they were trained and licensed.
12. The congress enjoined Nigerians to always ask questions on the status and qualifications of any person attending to them as a nurse or a midwife because not everyone that dons the nurses’ uniform is a nurse or a midwife. Nurses and midwives, unlike quacks, have practicing licenses issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, after a rigorous education and training in the university or schools of nursing and midwifery. Quacks criminally disguise themselves as auxiliary nurses and operate without license, killing and maiming people. Just as there is nothing like auxiliary Doctors, the public should be aware that there is nothing like auxiliary Nurses.
13. The congress also reiterated the need for all schools of Nursing and Midwifery to be upgraded to degree awarding institutions with post-basic specialty programmes of Nursing and Midwifery metamorphosing into post-graduates programmes as Masters and P.hD.
14. Congress encouraged nurses to explore and maximize their entrepreneurial potentials for the enhancement of their economic status in order to attain financial independence and contribute meaningfully to the economy of the nation.
15. Congress-in-Session implored the general public and consumers of nursing services to relate well with nurses and avoid any form of assault and harassment of nurses when expressing their grievances.
16. Finally, the congress agreed and approved that the next UGONSA National Professional Conference and Scientific Update will hold in the 1st week of October, 2018 at Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Communique Drafting Committee Members
Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver. University of Nigeria Enugu Campus - Chairman
Nurse Akinola Adekunle Olubunmi. NeuroPsychiatric Hospital, Aro-Abeokuta -Secretary
Nurse Agbo Gabriel E. Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki- Member
Nurse A-James Valentine C. University College Hospital, Ibadan - Member
Nurse Ekuma-Ojin J.C.E. SON, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki- Member
Signed
Chief (Hon.) Egwuenu Solomon .E.O National PresidentNurse Nshi Goodluck I. National Secretary
Nurse Afoi Barry B. National PRO
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