Tunde Akanbi, Ilorin
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria is to embark on “Operation Show Your License of Operation and Practice” to all nurses and midwives practicing in the country before the end of this year.
The Secretary -General and Registrar of the council, Alhaji Farouk Umar Abubakar dropped this hint in Ilorin , the Kwara State capital while answering questions from newsmen.
Alhaji Farouk disclosed that a task force would be constituted in conjunction with various state councils across the federation in partnership with law enforcement agents that would be empowered to apprehend and flush out all nurses and midwives and quacks operating without an operational license.
According to him , the council has improved its production capacity of issuing licenses to their genuine members and announced that in the past eight months, it had issued out and renewed over twenty two thousand licenses to their qualified members and warned that none of their members can practice without an updating license.
The Secretary-General also disclosed that the council had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to issue out Higher National Diploma (HND) certificates to all nurses and midwives graduates after obtaining their academic qualifications.
He added that a committee would soon be constituted to meet some of their colleagues at the states and National Assembly to advocate for the enactment of a law to check quackery in the Nursing and Midwifery profession in the country lamenting that one of the greatest problem facing the health care delivery is dispensing fake and counterfeit drugs as well as Quackery among the health practitioners.
Alhaji Farouk called for a greater working partnership and relationship between the various state governments and it members and commended what he described as a perfect tie that is existing among its members and the Kwara state government but stressed the need for a more improved welfare package Nurses and midwives across the country .
The Secretary -General of the council noted that no health personnel can work in isolation or independently hence the need for health practitioners such as Nurses , doctors , medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists and other health staff to work in synergy and collectively address the health care delivery challenges facing the nation.
He called on members of the council to embark on various workshops and training so as to conform and be knowledgeable with the modern information and communication technology in relation with the new health challenges across the globe and be more dedicated and have the fear of God in the discharge of their duties with their patients and other fellow human beings.
