REPUTATION and merit are not always the closest of companions. John Chipman Gray, a professor of law at Harvard at the turn of the century, conferred this encomium on his early predecessor Joseph Story: he was "a man of great learning, and of reputation for learning greater even than the learning itself."

 

In "Dr Onianwa," a study of merit and reputation, Dr Onianwa has displayed the same affinity for dual relationships that has characterized her highly influential work in nursing and health related matters as well as her provocative quest to learning. The present compact and unflaggingly interesting volume, is bound to be provocative.

 

 

Dr Patricia Onianwa, the Deputy director wards also Head of department clinical nursing UCH Ibadan, Nursing's highest occupied position, has become the first Director of Nursing in the pioneer teaching hospital in Nigeria, against all the conventional political wisdom: there is already no director of nursing in any teaching hospital in the country prior now. It was probably the most popular act of the hospital administration, though that may be faint praise. When the result was released, I remarked privately that Dr Onianwa, could not possibly retain the unanimity of acclaim that her accession inspired. (The prophecy, it turned out, proved more accurate for myself.) How deserving, how enduring, is Dr Onianwa's reputation, and why?

 

To answer these questions, I have wisely confined my inquest to Dr Onianwa's career as a Deputy director of nursing and Head Of Department, an office she filled for 4years and in which her reputation was made. After a review of her leading strides, the ordinary Mans verdict is distinctly positive. Dr Onianwa has her flaws, including a tendency to seek perfection with an emphasis and selectivity calculated to buttress the intendended outcome of any task at hand (a characteristic hardly peculiar to Dr Onianwa, but to major players in the achievment circle.). But this is a critical study, by no means a debunking one.

 

Whether Onianwa's leadership style is somewhat florid, inverted, marked at crucial points by the teasing words, as a demerit or an asset is analyzed dispassionately. Like Dora's violation of conventional political canons, Dr Onianwa's flouting of the cautionary canons in nursing leadership has produced a living legacy. It is a style, like I will say, easy to parody but difficult to replicate. Whatever the message it encases, the rhetoric adheres in the same way as the language of those, denounced by Thomas Henry Huxley, "who would plaster the fair face of truth with that pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric."

 

Onianwa's motivational style, I maintain, this is a major element in her reputation. The other principal element is substantive. Dr Onianwa is commonly recognized as a progressive Nurse Administrator who gave new directions (or was it only decisive momentum?) to the development of basic areas of common knowledge that have been over looked such as being the pioneer author of the pain assessment chart which was almost hijacked by those who feed off other persons creativity and claim undeserved accolades. Also notably the current In service and quality assurance setup which was replicated by the CMD in other spheres of the hospital. How novel her contributions are if only they can be assessed. To buttress Onianwa's reputation, along with the indelible imprint of her style, the widespread perception of a gentle, assertive, noble character and her graceful thoughtfulness in the process of administration. After taking account of all that can be said to the disadvantage of her subject, I conclude that "among Nursing Administrators of this mordern era Dr Onianwa has no peer."

 

 I offers more than my own hard-wrought judgment of this subject. Critically appraise, and institute a study to Measure the Magnitude of her adherance to an evidenced-driven practice, review of research and abandonment of rituals that have often stunted nurisng progress. Onianwa's name will most definietly be mentioned in it, and here is the catch, problems small and large emerge in a bid to transcend from the old to the new. A gold fish has no hiding place, no wonder she was made a board member of the nearly comatose Nursing and midwifery council of Nigeria but her membership is game changer as a driver of innovative ideas.

 

 What exactly is meant by reputation? For this purpose I define it as to be " 'widely regarded in a good light,' and thus as practically equivalent to fame." But while the volume of name references in various publications may be a good measure of attention and fame in the broader sense, it does not necessarily signify a ranking in a good light, a badge of merit or approval. Witness names like Hitler, Napoleon, Marx and, yes our very own Nigerian leaders . I am fully aware of the limitations  employed in drawing such inference. Still, im unfazed in my eagerness to have it applied more broadly.

 

Quantitative research may have either of two values: to provide new or counterintuitive information, or to affirm what we "always knew" but now we know. With Dr Patricia O. Onianwa, the data are of essentially the latter kind.

 

But above and beyond the figures stands the Figure. In the case of Dr Patricia Onianwa, what is most needed is a full-bodied scholarly biography, toward which the present study, illuminating in itself, will serve as a significant contribution to a broader understanding of the subject matter 

 

Congratulations mam!!

 

Written by Victor Ubogu