Guardian Nigeria
To reduce the high burden of care in hospitals, the Federal Government intends to expand nursing schools and enroll over 100,000 nursing students before the end of the year. It has already enrolled about 60,000 student nurses.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced this during the maiden matriculation of the College of Nursing Sciences, National Orthopedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos (NOHIL) held at the hospital pavilion.
In his speech, the minister pointed out that the hospital’s difficulty, two years ago, in sustaining a high level of care due to a shortage of nurses birthed the idea for a nursing school.
“Today, we are here not just for ourselves, but for the entire country. What we are doing here is a model that we have copied and duplicated all across the country,” he said.
Alausa noted that before the present government came to power, the country was only enrolling 28,000 nurses yearly, but that the enrolment has gone up to 68,000 nurses throughout the country, adding that the government was planning to enroll over 100,000 students before the end of this year.
“The President deserves a lot of credit for making this possible. He made the commitment that every single Nigerian must be entitled to meaningful and comprehensive healthcare, and the way to start is to begin to expand and train more nurses that would deliver this care to our citizens,” he added.
The minister congratulated the matriculating students and advised them to not just study, graduate and travel abroad for work due to better remuneration; but rather to be patient, as the government was deliberating on a better deal for all health workers in the country. He urged them to find fulfillment and a sense of service in their career path.
The Medical Director, NOHIL, Dr Mustapha Alimi, implored the Federal Government to build more infrastructure for the school to be able to accommodate 600 or more students in the future.
