The presidential candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Engr. Rabi”u Musa Kwankwaso, has challenged community and religious leaders to promote career development for youth in community nursing and midwivery to check acute shortage in the region.
Besides, the former Kano governor is worried over increased in maternal and newborn mortality, which he attributed to manpower deficit in community health workers. He therefore advocated massive enrollment to reduce the burden.
Kwankwaso spoke yesterday at the presentation of professional license to new nurses and midwives certified by Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria after successful completion of their basic nursing training at Nafisatu College of Nursing Sciences at Kwankwaso, Madobi local government, Kano state.
Kwankwaso, who is the proprietor of the private college of Nursing, disclosed the intent to bridge low level healthcare capacity across communities and rural settlement in Kano, explained the reason why he established the institution in 2019.
The former senator, revealed plans to transform the college, named after his late mother Hajia Nafisatu Musa Kwankwaso, to full pledge college of medicine that will produce high skill medical personnel.
Earlier, the chief consultant of the institution, M. K Mahmoud, said the Nursing and Midwifery Council has given approval to Nafisatu College to run and produce specialists in Community Nursing and Midwifery beginning from November this year.
He said the gracious permission allowed the college to admit 40 students each for Community Nursing and Community Midwifery programs for a total of 240 graduands in three (3) sets with effect from 2023 – 2025.
Besides, Mahmoud hinted that 2024, the college will open its admission into four (4) years ND/HND program in Nursing having secured the accreditation from National Board for Technical Education as well as BNSc in Nursing NBTE.
Kwankwaso said: “Let me urge all of you to support this course Community Nursing and Community Midwifery which is important in the rural areas. Infact, it took us a lot of efforts to get the approval of the council which is the first of its kind in this country for any private institution to have the licence.
“Because we believe many of us come from the villages and towns and we know the difficulties being experienced in the remote areas especially in the area of this very important sector that requires a lot of attention.
“At this point, I like to appeal to all those concerned especially politicians and those who are representing rural communities, to publicize and support the course to ensure that each and every community have a nursing and midwifery professionals in those communities. We have checked the record, and so far, many people from the city of Kano are the majority of people who have applied,” he said.
In their separate remarks, the Directors of Midwifery and Nursing, Hajiya Rakiya Sule and Tijjani Shehu respectively were optimistic the graduands of the newly introduced courses will help address quackery by 90 percent and reduce maternal and newborn mortality significantly.
