The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria has granted approval for the Abia State Ministry of Health to commence the training of Nurses and Midwives that would work in underserved community health facilities across the state.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu stated this at Government House Umuahia while briefing Newsmen on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council Meeting chaired by Governor Alex Otti.
Prince Kanu praised the present administration’s handling of the recently released nursing exams,
adding that there were no reported cases of missing names or bribery issues as experienced in the past.
He stated that the present government is committed to conducting fair exams and providing opportunities to those who excel on merit.
Contributing, the Commissioner for Health, Ngozi Okoronkwo said that the special nursing training course which would run for a period of one year could also be used as an entry point for those interested in studying nursing.
She said that plans were underway to build government-owned College of Nursing in Abia, where all the existing government-owned nursing institutions would become campuses under the college, and the college would be overseen by a provost.
“We are at the 80 per cent stage where we are about to start the collegiate, meaning that it would allow us to increase intake of nursing students and train more nurses
“And with the ‘Japa Syndrome’ going on, production seems to be the only way out as this will ensure that we are not short of health workers in the state”. Okoronkwo said.
She said that the United States Center for Disease Control had made Abia a recipient of its pilot programme focused on intensifying the campaign against HIV and enhancing healthcare delivery in the state.
Okoronkwo emphasized that the inclusion of Abia in the programme would further enhance the efforts made by the government to improve healthcare service delivery in the state.
