Cross River State Ministry of Health Headquarters,
Calabar, Cross River State.
Sir/Madam,
CLARIFICATION ON ELIGIBILITY FOR DIRECTORSHIP IN NURSING: BNSc/BSc NURSING IS THE MINIMUM QUALIFICATION FOR ATTAINING THE DIRECTORATE CADRE IN NURSING: NO PROFESSION IS ALLIED TO NURSING AND NURSING IS ALLIED TO NO OTHER PROFESSION
Nightingales’ greetings from our members comprising nurses with minimum qualification of first degree in Nursing!
2. The report reaching us that some ineligible candidates are allowed by the Cross River State Ministry of Health to ply the directorate cadre of Nursing, on the basis that they possess degrees “allied” to nursing, prompted our reaching out to you for succinct clarification on eligibility for directorship in nursing.
3. It is our considered belief that some persons might have misled the ministry to indulge in such an unconscionable act which utterly conflicts with the prevailing laws and extant rules guiding promotions to the directorate cadre of nursing, hence the need to formally call the attention of the Ministry to the extant provisions.
4. The nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the statutory regulatory body for nursing in Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) had verily clarified, via several memos and circulars, that nursing is a profession on its own recognized nationally and internationally and is not allied to or with any profession, and that eligibility for promotion to the directorate cadre in nursing is sine qua non of possession of first degree in nursing (Kindly refer the documents marked and attached as Annexure A, B & C).
5. The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) had also affirmed the position of the NMCN and FMOH with circulars such as the one released after the 36th National Council on establishment (NCE) meeting (which Cross River State was part and parcel of) held in Akure, Ondo State, in the year 2012 that led to vacation of the circular Ref No. CND.100/S.6/Vol II/115 of 1st December, 2006, which wrongly imported the term “allied” in the nursing lexicology in Nigeria and the one that was released in the year 2016 after the 39th NCE meeting in Minna, Niger State, which approved a unified schemes of service with the nomenclature “NURSING OFFFICER” for all nurses but with an unequivocal caveat that career progression beyond the post of Chief Nursing Officer MUST be subject to acquisition of first degree in nursing (Kindly refer the documents marked and attached as Annexure C, D & E).
6. It is therefore silly and preposterous for ineligible persons to mask under the toga of “degrees allied to nursing” to present themselves for promotion to the directorate cadre of nursing against the statutory dictate that eligibility for such can only and would only be conferred by possession of first degree in nursing.
7. Such ugly occurrence requires that we verily put the ministry on notice that there are no such things as “degrees allied to nursing” just as the nursing degree is not allied to any other degree as the attached referenced documents clearly indicate.
8. While we are not against any nurse aspiring to reach the zenith of his/her career, we are totally against using such to truncate or water down professionalism in nursing as the purveyors of the “allied degree” seem desperate to.
9. We wish to humbly request that you challenge those flying the inordinate kite of “degrees allied to nursing” in Cross River State to also furnish you with information on degrees that are allied to other professions such as Medicine, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science, Physiotherapy, and so on.
10. Promotion of RN/RM diplomats to directorate cadre of nursing with degrees other than nursing degree is not only a blatant aberration to all principles of professionalism but an open defecation on the extant laws especially as the so-called “allied courses” have their own separate schemes of service which have never and will never recognize possession of first degree in nursing as eligibility for running their directorate cadres.
11. It patently defies rationality and logic how the purveyors of “degrees allied to nursing” and their promoters come to erroneously conceive that a single degree can grant an individual the eligibility for promotion and career progression in two separate and distinct professions and how they managed to lure the Cross River State Ministry of Health into this crooked conception.
12. We therefore courteously call on the Ministry to immediately correct the mistake of promoting ineligible candidates to the directorate cadre of nursing and forthwith desist from making such a grievous mistake again as mistakes are meant to be corrected and not to be repeated.
PRAYER
Having humbly called your esteemed attention to the impervious fact that no profession is allied to nursing, just as nursing is not allied to any other profession, we hereby respectfully call on your esteemed office to
1. immediately void all the wrongful promotions of the so-called “allied degree holders”, into the directorate cadre of nursing.
2. promote qualified and eligible candidates possessing a minimum of first degree in nursing, .i.e. Bachelor of nursing Science (BNSc) degree or B.Sc Nursing, as prescribed by extant law, into the directorate cadre of nursing.
Please accept the assurances of our esteemed regards.
Signed:
CHIEF (HON.) S.E.O. EGWUENU NURSE P.O. ETENG
National President Ag.National Secretary
CC
Her Excellency, the First Lady Cross River State.
Head of Service, Cross River State.
Chairman, Governing Board Cross River State College of Nursing & Midwifery Sciences.
NANNM, Cross River State Council.
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