13th February, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Olubukola Mary Akinpelu, a popular Nigerian-American Nurse educator who promoted increased access to nursing education and who fashioned a healthcare training on nursing in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic, has identified with nurses following a circular by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), that applicants seeking the verification of certificates to foreign nursing boards and councils must possess a two-year post qualification experience.
Olubukola urged the NMCN to reverse their recent student conditions for the nursing personnel working overseas, adding that it’s an attempt to hinder their freedom to pursue career opportunities. She requested the council to address nurses’ welfare, salary scale, shortage of staff, and other rights.
The Oyo state born nurse Educator who had her primary school education at East Gate and secondary at Federal government girls college (FGGC), Oyo State, before proceeding to Lamar University in the USA for her degree.
Insisted that comparing the nursing profession in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other developed countries to Nigeria is like comparing honey to a bitter leaf.
That Nigeria has the third most wanted nurses globally, despite the deprivations of our healthcare delivery system, Nigeria educates a robust workforce of English-speaking graduates, including nurses and doctors, making them desirable workers in the US, UK, Canada, and the Gulf countries. Olubukola advised for Nigerian nurses to be allowed to see the opportunities that are global for them.
For some nurses, taking a job in a foreign country can provide better pay and working conditions, as well as opportunities for further education and career advancement.
In Nigeria, decades of underinvestment and chronic corruption helped create dire shortages of nurses and caused hospital conditions to deteriorate and the sacrifices nurses made, and the risks they took during COVID-19 crisis, ought to lead to better pay and working conditions. Instead, Nigeria’s healthcare facilities continued to deteriorate.