By Mustapha Yauri,
Medical experts have, on many occasions, expressed concern about inadequate number of medical personnel, particularly midwives, in various health institutions across the country.
They observe that shortage of midwives at the primary healthcare level is the major factor threatening maternal, new born and child survival.
Corroborating this observation, Mrs Ratidzai Ndhlovu, Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said 59 per cent of pregnancies in Nigeria occurred at the grassroots.
Realising the challenge, she said the fund, in collaboration with other partners, supported 98 midwifery schools in Nigeria with medical kits for the training of student midwives.
“Anatomical models, midwifery equipment, text books and other teaching kits were also distributed to the schools.
“The fund also provided kits for 120 nurse tutors from the 98 midwifery schools for effective training,’’ she said.
Commending the effort of the fund, Mrs Toyin Saraki, wife of the Senate President, observed that the kits would provide the midwives with practical elements in their training.
“The equipment will allow thousands of midwives to leave school with right skills, experience and expertise to treat more women in the right way.
“The equipment will also help in saving thousands of lives and ensure that many women receive quality maternity care, experts’ advice on family planning, birth spacing and many reproductive health packages,’’ she said at a news conference.
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Irrespective of this, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNW), called on President Muhamadu Buhari to address the shortage of nurses in hospitals and health centres.
Sharing similar sentiments, Temitope Obayendo, Online Content Editor at Pharmanews Ltd., Lagos, observed that “it is highly appalling that the traditional roles of midwives are denied them today in most of our teaching hospitals.
“Yet we are suffering from high maternal mortality rate and demoralising infant mortality rate.
“The perverted course of social justice has to be re-ordered in favour of equity, fair play and re-enthronement of justifiable jurisdiction scope in Nigerian health care professional practices’’.
She insisted that nurses in Nigeria needed to be accorded rightful position in the scheme of things.
“Nurses need to be remunerated with a scale commensurable with the quantum of the skills, knowledge and expertise we contribute to quality health care services and day to day running and administration of health care services.
“If there will be efficient primary health care services in Nigeria, we have to empower the community midwives and public health nurses whose roles are being eroded today in primary health care,’’ she observed.
She said the challenges in the health sector included lack of equipment in our hospitals, acute shortage of skilled manpower, quackery and inadequate funding, among others.
“In nursing profession in particular, the bad image of nurses and nursing in Nigeria and absence of unified scheme of services for professional nurses, are other challenges confronting nursing profession in particular,’’ she said.
Also, in her opinion, Mrs Olushola Olatunde, the Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of NANNW, noted that employment of more nurses and midwives would enhance health service delivery across the country.
He observed that unlike now, in the past, “when an experienced nurse that had attained the peak of his or her career retired , government would employ three or four nurses whose salaries would be commensurate with that of the retiring nurse as replacement’’.
Olatunde noted that while hospitals and health centres were increasing, there were no commensurate number of nurses and midwives to offer the needed services to the people in such health institutions.
“Our profession happens to be unique in the sense that we form the largest part of the health care delivery.
“Unfortunately, we render selfless services and we are hardly appreciated, but we cannot give what we don’t have.
“We believe that government should continue to employ nurses and midwives because shortage of staff is affecting the health care delivery,’’ she said.
According to her, if government continues to establish health centres without employing the required number of nurses to manage them, it will not guarantee improvement in the health sector.
She also urged employers of nurses and midwives to always provide the right environment for their employees.
By and large, observers call on stakeholders to ensure that enough nurses and midwives are employed, particularly at the grassroots.
They recall that WHO estimates that there is a shortage of 4.3 million physicians, nurses and other health workers worldwide, especially in many developing countries.
They, therefore urge the stakeholders to check shortage of nurses and midwives by providing more incentives for them to control migration of medical personnel who travel to other countries to get more money and enjoy better working conditions.(NANFeatures)