Gombe – Gombe State College of Nursing and Midwifery had been granted full accreditation by the National Council of Nurses and Midwives (NCNM), State Commissioner of Health.
Dr Kennedy Ishaya, has disclosed.
He told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Friday that the feat was attained after about 10 years of struggle to meet stipulated requirements.
“We have never had it like this since the establishment of the school over 10 years now.
“The first experience, they (NCNM) gave us things that we were expected to meet and they allowed us to admit only 30 in each class.
“This time around, we met almost all the requirements; we are now permitted to admit 50 in each class and this is a great achievement.
“With this development, shortage of manpower in the health sector will be a thing of the past,” he said.
According to him, the institution is now a ‘College of Nursing’ and no longer ‘School of Nursing’ and will start awarding degree equivalent.
“We are now looking for a university to affiliate to so that the degree will be coming from the university,” he said.
The commissioner also said that maternal child health records of the state had been diluted following the influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“Initially, we had a very good record but with the influx of IDPs, our statistics has been diluted.
“Most of the people coming have never attended antenatal clinics; some never took their children for immunization.
“We are now fully back on mop-up immunization , advertising on media and asking pregnant women to come and access antenatal and post-natal services free of charge.
“We have also designed an itinerary and will be going from house-to-house to give the best we can for nursing mothers and their babies” he said.