How Nigeria's Ministry of Health & NMCN Are Destroying Destinies of Nigerian Nurses

Nigeria’s Ministry Of Health, Nursing Council (NMCN) Disobeyed National Assembly’s Directive To Reopen Licence Verification Portal for Nigerian Nurses out of jealousy and thoughtless policies.


The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), under the Federal Ministry of Health, has declined to comply with the National Assembly's directive to reopen its portal and resume verification of nurses and midwives in accordance with its previous guidelines, effectively ignoring the legislative body's instruction.


SaharaReporters reported earlier that the suspension of license verification services by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has resulted in the rejection of Nigerian nurses' applications to work abroad.


https://saharareporters.com/2024/08/19/how-nigerias-ministry-health-nursing-council-disobeyed-national-assemblys-directive

In a senseless effort to curb healthcare workers migration abroad in Nigeria, the Ministry of Health through the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) have implemented the most draconian policy in the history of mankind.


What makes this shameful is how foreign countries have been commenting on this issue which further reduces Nigeria's integrity and government perception in the international scene as they shudder at the absolute disregard for human right plus complete disrespect of Nigeria's lawmaking government arm; the National Assembly by a mere government ministry and parastatal.


How can a mere Minister and Secretary of a tiny government body that overseas Nursing practice disobey the 3rd arm of a country's government without any consequences? This further tells how the APC led regime have destroyed respect for rule of law and order in Nigeria

Nigerian Govt is just tryna protect the masses

The Mortality rate is high already and a quarterly exodus of Nurses will only raise it higher up

Govt should dialogue with them and try to meet their needs

CyrusVI:
Nigerian Govt is just tryna protect the masses

The Mortality rate is high already and a quarterly exodus of Nurses will only raise it higher up

Govt should dialogue with them and try to meet their needs

Now let's analyze this policy to bring our the negative and positive sides of it, follow me.


The Positive Side of This Draconian Policy of Shutting Down Nurses Verification Portal

According to Nigerian federal government, they are trying to curb brain drain in the healthcare sector, so their best approach was to start with Nurses by shutting down their verification portal so as to prevent Nigerian Nurses from migrating abroad to work or traveling abroad to further their nursing education.


According to people that believe in this thoughtless policy, it will help retain Nigerian Nurses who they said got their nursing education subsidized by the Nigerian government since if NMCN don't verify their license, they cannot practice outside Nigeria.


To them, it will help Nigeria have more than enough capable nurses to manage Nigeria's hospitals.


The Negative Implication of This Draconian Policy of Shutting Down Nurses Verification Portal

What this means is that you are intentionally holding Nigerian nurses on hostage to remain in Nigeria in order to render healthcare services to Nigerians that fall ill. This also means that Nigerian nurses who have made up their mind to migrate abroad to work to better their lives and that of their suffering family members in Nigeria will become unhappy with their nursing jobs in Nigeria and will never give their best. They will be transferring their frustration to patients that visit their healthcare facilities and this will soon lead to poor care service deliveries in our hospitals as nurses will be working without passion and dedication because they are working under psychological and emotional trauma and frustration. This will even lead to deterioration and collapse of our health sector.


These ill-informed old men and women in position of authority in Nigeria are unknowingly destroying the future of Nigerian youths because this healthcare professionals migration have really helped a lot of Nigerian families and youths as these nurses migrate abroad to earn more money, grow their career, fly the image of Nigeria positively abroad and still remit back huge FOREX to Nigeria that help to sustain our struggling economy.


This nurses migration also help to create more opportunities for nurses in Nigeria because Nigeria's healthcare system have not been able to employ the nurses we already have in Nigeria plus the thousands graduating yearly from various Nursing schools and Colleges of Nursing all over Nigeria, if this nurses migration is closed, it will have a devastating effect on Nigeria's healthcare sector sooner than later because Nigeria cannot employ the number of nurses we produce and this will further worsen the rate of graduate unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria and in turn push more Nigerian youths to the poverty den with time.


What then is the best way forward?

They bastardized the healthcare sector of this nation by allowing facilities to deteriorate and poor renumeration of healthcare worker but go abroad for foreign tourism. Senseless and useless government and leaders.

How to Positively Curb Healthcare Workers Migration in Nigeria

1.) First, government must make a serious effort to improve healthcare workers remuneration, allowances and work conditions.

Make it compulsory to pay every graduate nurse in Nigeria a minimum starting salary of NGN400,000, Doctors NGN800,000, and create a special salary structure for healthcare workers just as we have for NNPC, CBN, NIMASA, FIRS, etc, create a highly rewarding healthcare workers salary scheme for Nigerian healthcare workers.


Clamp down on private hospitals to also implement a special salary structure for healthcare workers in Nigeria, even if it's not up to what the government is paying, let it be at least 50%, and also clamp down on use of quack nurses and doctors by private hospitals in Nigeria. Let every healthcare profession regulatory body sit up and have an enforcement team that will be visiting hospitals unannounced on weekly basis to inspect and verify their nurses, doctors, etc to ensure they are fully licensed nurses and doctors.


2.) increase funding to nursing schools and colleges of nursing all over Nigeria and also increase their admission quota to like 200% so that Nigeria can start producing more than enough nurses that will serve Nigeria comfortably and still have excess to export to countries that need them without complain so that Nigeria can be removed from red listed countries by the World Health Organization.


3.) Increase the tuition fee for nursing and medical related courses to make nursing schools and college of medicine self reliant with less funding from government.


4.) increase verification fee for nurses

I don't know the full details of this imbroglio, and I sympathise with those affected.

However, I can tell you that every country in the world, including the USA, UK, and other countries in Europe, act in their own selfish interest when they face a critical situation.

The USA for example has banned a number of American technology companies from selling certain products to China, just because they want to slow down China's technological advancement. Google NVIDIA export ban. Another example - during COVID, many countries that were less affected by COVID refused to sell their unused stock of Covid vaccines to countries in desperate need.

So, when a country faces a desperate situation, it is not uncommon for the government of that country to take decisions it considers to be in its people's best interest.

That is not to say I agree with the government's position. It is just the reality.

G

franchasofficia:
✓ How Nigeria's Ministry of Health & NMCN Are Destroying Destinies of Nigerian Nurses
Nigeria’s Ministry Of Health, Nursing Council (NMCN) Disobeyed National Assembly’s Directive To Reopen Licence Verification Portal for Nigerian Nurses out of jealousy and thoughtless policies.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), under the Federal Ministry of Health, has declined to comply with the National Assembly's directive to reopen its portal and resume verification of nurses and midwives in accordance with its previous guidelines, effectively ignoring the legislative body's instruction.
SaharaReporters reported earlier that the suspension of license verification services by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has resulted in the rejection of Nigerian nurses' applications to work abroad.

Why was NMCN tied to the government to begin with? Na government pay for the training of all of those midwives ans nurses abi wetin?

DeLaRue:
∆ I don't know the full details of this imbroglio, and I sympathise with those affected.
However, I can tell you that every country in the world, including the USA, UK, and other countries in Europe, act in their own selfish interest when they face a critical situation.
The USA for example has banned a number of American technology companies from selling certain products to China, just because they want to slow down China's technological advancement. Google NVIDIA export ban. Another example - during COVID, many countries that were less affected by COVID refused to sell their unused stock of Covid vaccines to countries in desperate need.
So, when a country faces a desperate situation, it is not uncommon for the government of that country to take decisions it considers to be in its people's best interest.
That is not to say I agree with the government's position. It is just the reality.

Trust Nigerians to try to justify the most absurd. Imagine this one attempting to compare the lives and livelihoods of nurses(humans) to the banning of products and services by other countries.

These nurses are not products that you can ban or restrict in the same way you can products, stripping them of their rights. Kai! They are human beings many of whom never one day in their life benefitted even a Kobo from that government in Nigeria. .

DeLaRue:
I don't know the full details of this imbroglio, and I sympathise with those affected.

However, I can tell you that every country in the world, including the USA, UK, and other countries in Europe, act in their own selfish interest when they face a critical situation.

The USA for example has banned a number of American technology companies from selling certain products to China, just because they want to slow down China's technological advancement. Google NVIDIA export ban. Another example - during COVID, many countries that were less affected by COVID refused to sell their unused stock of Covid vaccines to countries in desperate need.

So, when a country faces a desperate situation, it is not uncommon for the government of that country to take decisions it considers to be in its people's best interest.

That is not to say I agree with the government's position. It is just the reality.

A few regulatory body banned the licencing of foreign professionals in a particular health care sector for some years in a developed country I once lived in.

In addition, Nigerian public university or college system is heavily subsidized by the FG. Only those that graduated from a private uni should be exempted. They should make it in such a way that nurses or any health care professional that wants to leave should be made to pay the difference in the cost of the subsidized education vs unsubsidized one.

Nigeria can't keep training other countries for free. Those developed countries should make their own fees cheaper so that more locals can enrol in their health care programs instead of stealing from other previously colonized countries. We are no longer their slaves.

COMRADES, everything about federal government is nonsense

Sensible nurses should go to neighboring countries and certify themselves

Kobojunkieee:
Why was NMCN tied to the government to begin with? Na government pay for the training of all of those midwives ans nurses abi wetin?

Honestly I have been wondering same.


If Nigerian government claim they subsidized nursing education in Nigeria, they did same for every other profession, so why clamp down on Nurses; maybe because it's a female dominated profession they feel they can persecute without backlash since most Nigerian men love flexing their muscle with women

tishbite42:
Sensible nurses should go to neighboring countries and certify themselves

NMCN must verify you first to the neighboring countries before they can issue you their own nursing license too

Kobojunkieee:
Trust Nigerians to try to justify the most absurd. Imagine this one attempting to compare the lives and livelihoods of nurses(humans) to the banning of products and services by other countries. These nurses are not products that you can ban or restrict in the same way you can products, stripping them of their rights. Kai! They are human beings many of whom never one day in their life benefitted even a Kobo from that government in Nigeria. .

All the people supporting this evil policy or giving excuses for it are Yoruba APC supporters, whatever nonsense Tinubu does is right to them, time will tell sha

franchasofficia:
NMCN must verify you first to the neighboring countries before they can issue you their own nursing license too

No
Go with my RN or BSc Nursing and register under them

tishbite42:

No
Go with my RN or BSc Nursing and register under them

Honestly you don't understand the whole process. So long as you didn't study in their country, you need to be verified from wherever country you studied nursing

franchasofficia:
Honestly you don't understand the whole process. So long as you didn't study in their country, you need to be verified from wherever country you studied nursing

Okay
So, Nigerian nurses are effectively trapped

tishbite42:

Okay
So, Nigerian nurses are effectively trapped

Yes oh, they are

franchasofficia:
All the people supporting this evil policy or giving excuses for it are Yoruba APC supporters, whatever nonsense Tinubu does is right to them, time will tell sha

It didn't take you long to go tribal.

DeLaRue:


It didn't take you long to go tribal.

Yes oh, Bola Tinubu is a disaster