• Health expert seeks improved investment in nursing profession
• Ondo govt hails UNIMED for producing doctors, nurses, others in record time
President Bola Tinubu has directed that necessary modalities should be put in place for the establishment of a teaching hospital in Akure, the Ondo State, to aid the training of the medical students of the Federal University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Akure (FUTA).
Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammad Pate, while activating the marching order of the President, has dispatched a team to the state to assess the location of the teaching hospital to include the proposed medical facility in the 2025 budget.
Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Jimoh Olawole Salaudeen, who led the presidential team to Akure, the Ondo State capital, inspected the permanent site of FUTA where the hospital would be located.
The team also inspected the Akure annex of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), which would serve as a temporary site for the teaching hospital.
Salaudeen, while speaking with journalists after the inspection, said he was satisfied that the teaching hospital would soon become operational due to available facilities on the ground.
Meanwhile, Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr BanjiAjaka, said the state government was ready to provide all necessary support to actualise the President’s directive.
Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, said the institution had been worried about whose hospital its medical students would observe their clinical studies.
In another development, a professor of Community-Public Health Nursing in the Department of Nursing Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Adekemi Eunice Olowokere, has urged the government to invest more in the nursing workforce.
The community-public health expert, while lamenting the poor investment in the nursing profession, expressed concern that despite the immense contribution of nurses to the health profession in the country, investment in the nursing workforce is still abysmally low.
Olowokere advised while speaking on the theme “The Economic Power of Nursing Care: Challenges and Prospects of Investing in the Nursing Workforce,” during the induction of 82 nursing graduates of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED).
She, however, urged the government to increase funding to educate nurses, create fair and safe working conditions, create more jobs for nurses, and come up with strategies to retain nurses in the country, control nurses’ mobility and migration, among others.”
Earlier at the induction ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Roseangela Nwuba, encouraged the new nurses to be good ambassadors of the university.
Also, the Registrar of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr Faruk Umar Abubakar, represented by Stella Godswill, urged the newly inducted nurses to be compassionate, kind, and have listening ears in their practice.
Meanwhile, the state government has hailed UNIMED for its exploits in health profession’s education in the last 10 years.
The Head of Service, Bayo Philip, who gave the commendation while conferring an award on the institution for its strides in the state during the 2024 Public Service Award ceremony, said that the recognition became imperative due to UNIMED’s contribution to the health and education sectors within its short time of establishment.
