The National Council of Nursing and Midwifery of Nigeria has appealed to the Federal Government to prioritize the welfare of Nigerian Nurses.
The National President of the Union, Dr. Michael Nnachi, made the appeal during the 26th Annual National Convention, of Nigeria Universities Nursing Student’s Association, NUNSA, at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus.
The Annual Convention tagged; Our Nurses, Our Future, addressed the changing dynamics and adaptability in the nursing profession for effective service delivery in the 21st Century.
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Dr. Nnachi said that the body saddled with the responsible to ensure public wellbeing and efficient health service delivery, suffer from poor welfare scheme and lack of proper motivation from the government.
He attributed the trend of nurses seeking green pastures abroad to poor renumeration and urged concerned authorities to facilitate the implementation of the peculiarity allowance to motivate the nurses.
He further urged participants of the conference to engage in self development for better service delivery, noting that the 21st Century Nurse should move with trends in the health sector and be sensitive to change.
In a welcome address, National President NUNSA, Nurse Khadija Musa, said that the union have improved the level of advocacy and synergy, with government and other public establishments to enhance welfare and academic performance of its members.
Recounting some of the achievement Khadija said that the association facilitated the scholarship of 6 students, registration the organization with CAC, empowerment of 1200 nurses and upgrade the association website, among other
She further commended the executive of the Association, UGUNSA, NMCN, NANNM, FHI and other sister bodies for their support and corporation in actualizing the goals of the association under her administration.
Speaking on the occasion, Head Of Department Nursing, UNEC, Dr. Splendor Ihediebube, charged participants to work diligently and live up to the standards and expectations in the nursing profession.
In her speech, the Guest Lecturer, Dr. Hope Opara said that nurses need to develop competence and capacity in order to meet the modern day demands.
Dr. Opera described the emergence of technology as a wake up call on the leadership of the profession to engage in meaningful decision making, to enable teams members navigate through the external and internal demands of technology on the nursing profession.
She highlighted pandemics, shortage of nurses, misuse of social media, poor welfare packages and surge in strange diseases as challenges facing the health sector, and urged concerned authorities to engage in meaningful decision making process that will address the challenges.
Addressing the participants on the need to engage in research, Reverend Sister P. C. Chikeme called on government to support the health sector with funding for research in order to provide proper and quality health services.
The event was graced by representative UGUNSA, members of the association from various states, and Cameroon as well as featured drama, award presentation and launch of the NUNSA magazine.
