Nurses to FG: The Solution to Nurses’ Emigration Brain Drain is Easy

 In the wake of the rising trend of Nigerian nurses massively migrating abroad in search of greener pastures, a.k.a. “Japa Syndrome”, nurses under the auspices of the University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have advised the government that with political will, the solution to the problem is handy. In a statement on Tuesday  issued via its communique at the end of its National Profession Conference and Scientific Update (NAPCON) 2024, held in Ondo State, and jointly signed by her National President, Nurse Opeyemi Ojo and the National Secretary, Nurse Philip Eteng, the association bemoaned the tsunami of Nigerian healthcare workforce emigration to developed countries, which it described as the eleventh (11th) plague after the similitude of the Biblical Egyptian plague.

“Acknowledging the devastating impact of the skyrocketing nurses’ emigration to the Nigerian healthcare sector, the association submitted that for the government to understand the gravity of the situation, it is crucial to look at facts and figures.”

“Data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria showed that more than 42,000 Nigerian Nurses migrated abroad in the last three years, with about 15,000 nurses leaving Nigeria in 2023 alone.”

“Considering that the current nurses’ coverage rate is 1.5 nurses per 10,000 persons against the 3.75 nurses per 10,000 population recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for Nigeria, it portends that there is more than a 60% shortfall in the WHO-recommended nurses’ coverage rate. The situation is even catastrophically dire in rural areas as most of our nursing workforce is concentrated in the urban areas.”

“The paradox is that while we complain about the nurses' emigration and its consequent brain drain, evidence shows that a huge chunk of qualified nurses in Nigeria are either unemployed, under-employed, or underpaid.”

“The current Nigerian nurses and midwives unemployment survey showed that 57.1% of nurses remained unemployed 0-2 years after graduation, 29.9% remained unemployed for 3–5 years, 7% remained unemployed for 6 – 8 years, and 6.1% remained unemployed for more than 8 years after graduation.”

“The survey also found that 95% of the unemployed Nurses & Midwives were willing to work in rural community settings, given the resources and the same pay as those who work in Federal Medical Centers and Teaching Hospitals located in urban areas.”

“While we concede that we lose our best nurses in the ongoing emigration wave, we make bold to emphasize that the government has not done much to address the perennial issue of unemployment and underemployment of nurses in Nigeria.”

“How do we tell the nurses who have not found work more than eight years after graduation to remain in the country and to maintain hope in the government or our healthcare system when the subtle message that the government is passing to them is “we do not need you”?

“When you contrast this with open adverts from foreign countries that need the services of these nurses that are treated as trash here in Nigeria, it becomes crystal clear that nurses who have left and those planning to leave are not doing so out of lack of patriotism but primarily out of poor treatment, debasement, and outright neglect that our system lacerated them with.”   

The association recalled that the Federal Government (FG), in its 2001 Abuja declaration, set a target of 15% as the share of gross government expenditure to be annually spent on healthcare to revamp our health sector. It declared that it is unacceptable that the government has been failing an exam it set for itself by averaging about 4.2% per annum since 2001 that it set this target.  It, therefore, advised the government to fully implement the 15% target of the Abuja declaration, as this will enable the healthcare sector to have the necessary transformative funds.

“We unequivocally call on the FG to implement its own self-set target of 15% government expenditure for the health sector and use the resultant funds to modernize our healthcare facilities and offer life insurance, improved retirement benefits, subsidized education, automatic employment of nurses and midwives, and a comparative wage that will be at least up to 10% of what nurses working abroad, say in the United States, make.”

 The association also advised the FG to float a targeted incentive that will entice those currently living abroad to return home.

“Being in contact with many nurses living abroad, this association can confidently assert that a considerable number of nurses currently living abroad would return home to offer their knowledge, skills, and expertise to develop our own health system if the government could advance an incentive that would see them earn about 20% of what they earn abroad here in Nigeria.”

 “Because nurses are the tapestry that upholds the development of any health system, we, therefore, call on the government to show the political will to lift our healthcare system out of its current abyss by prioritizing nurses’ welfare and employment as the performance of any healthcare system is a direct reflection of how it treats its nurses”- the statement concluded.