The University graduates of Nursing science association has petitioned the Head of the civil service of the federation and chairman, National Council on Establishment Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita

 

A copy of the letter to Mrs Winifred Oyo-ita was made availiable to Nursingworld Nigeria throught the National Secretary Goodluck Nshi. The letter titled "Re: Health System Injustices: Nurses Implore your Motherly Intervention" reads thus:

 

Nurses under the auspices of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association, UGONSA, comprising Nurses with at least first degree in Nursing (B.N.Sc/B.Sc Nursing) brings you their ‘fraternal and solidarity greetings’. The Association wants to sincerely congratulate you on your recent confirmation as the substantive Head of Civil Service of the Federation by our dear president, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, and most warmly wish you every success in the conduct of your high, sensitive and esteemed office.

 

We humbly and sincerely wish to seize this opportunity to inform you that your appointment has astronomically raised our hope that the deadline for the release of the much awaited implementation circular for internship training and proper placement of the graduates of Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree, as approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC), is in sight. (Please, kindly refer to Annexure A herein attached). 

 

We adumbrate so because since the memorandum for “review of the nursing officers’ cadre to include internship post for the graduates of B.N.Sc degree”, captured among the Agenda of the 38th meeting of the National Council on Establishments (NCE) (Please, kindly refer to Annexure B herein attached) held at Ilorin, Kwara State in the year 2014 was referred to a Standing Committee, the NCE, probably due to frequent change of its leadership, has not met again. More so, most members of the standing committee are now retired, implying that as the new leader of the NCE you are now the key determinant of the way forward and given that the administration of our dearest President Muhammadu Buhari does not give in to injustice, cheats and discrimination, we have cogent reason to hope and belief that your elevation to the esteemed post of the HOSCF signposts the rebirth of equity and justice in the service.

 

 

As we pray God to grant you a remarkable and elongated tenure of uncommon achievements featured by evidence-based  positive reformations of the Civil Service of the Federation, we passionately appeal  for urgent redress of the perennial injustice of exclusion of the University Graduates of Nursing Science from internship training, that accommodates the University Graduates of other core healthcare professions, and their aberrant under placement on CONHESS 07 (i.e. Grade Level, GL, 08) after the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) whereas their counterparts in other core healthcare disciplines such as Pharmacy, Medical Lab Science, Physiotherapy, Medicine, Optometry, etc, are all properly placed on at least CONHESS 09 (i.e. GL 10) post-NYSC.

 

It smacks of great injustice that despite the profession of Nursing Science having identical entry requirement and course duration in the University with other core healthcare professions, its graduates are the only group excluded from the internship training generally approved by the NUC for the graduates of practicum healthcare disciplines as a tool for blending the theoretically skewed Nigerian University’s Education with comprehensive clinical expertise for qualitative care delivery. This notwithstanding, the University Graduates of Nursing still suffer yet another injustice of under-placement in the Civil Service post-NYSC despite the industrial arbitration Panel (IAP) award, of year 1981, that declared and granted that the Profession of Nursing is on parity with that of Pharmacy in Nigeria as is the case in Great Britain (Please kindly refer to Annexure C herein attached). Placing Graduate Nurses on CONHESS 07 where as interns of other healthcare disciplines are placed on CONHESS 08 (GL 09) pre-NYSC and their substantive Graduates on CONHESS 09 post-NYSC is not only demoralizing but also a nebulous portrayal of the Nursing profession as subservient to other healthcare disciplines that are now misconceived as superodinate to Nursing in our health sector. We verily hope that your motherly intervention as the head of the NCE shall give redress to this unfortunate situation.

 

One dicey misconception we have always strived to correct is the unlettered insinuation and assumption that one becomes a super nurse by just bagging a degree in nursing. There is no reason to consider a fresh Graduate Nurse a “super nurse” than to consider a young Medical Doctor (House Officer) a “super doctor”. If not the NUC would not have approved internship training for all the fresh University graduates of the practicum healthcare disciplines, including those of Nursing Science. Therefore, the internship training is paramount to baccalaureate programme of nursing as it is to those of other practicum healthcare disciplines since we are all products of the same theoretically skewed Nigerian Universities and most importantly because nurses are universally entrusted with people’s lives. Those that are entrusted with people’s lives must be adequately trained and competent to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively. `

 

As the chief custodian of the Civil Service Rule, the Schemes of Service in use in the Civil Service of the Federation and other documents that guide and regulate the Civil Service of the Federation, this Association looks forward to your deployment of your impeccable antecedents that stood you out as the ‘primus inter pares’ for this great job to ensure that Civil Servants, especially the Administrators, abide by the provisions of the extant rules and regulations of the service.

 

In the past, we reported cases of desecration of the Schemes of Service and the Civil Service rules by some Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) to the then occupant of your esteemed Office but unfortunately no visible effort was made to investigate our complaint let alone querying the culprits. We recall that in our later to your office, Ref no. UGONSA/014/HSCF/03 dated 15th Nov 2014 (herein attached as Annexure D), we invited the then Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOSCF) to note and investigate the gross desecration of the Schemes of Service by the Chief Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Umuahia (Abia State) and that of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, (Rivers State), who brazenly with impunity discarded the provisions of Section 3.7.1.  on page 105 of the Schemes of Service For use in the Civil Service of the Federation 2003 that made it categorically clear and unambiguous that possession of at least first degree in Nursing is a sine qua non of promotion into directorate cadre of Nursing.(Please kindly find Annexure E herein attached).

 

Acting as if they are not under any obligation to respect the provisions of the Schemes of Service, these CMDs appointed not only unqualified individuals, who did not meet the minimum requirement of first degree in Nursing, as Assistant Directors of Nursing but also promoted them above their qualified seniors in the service to head the department of Nursing Services, despite some of the seniors having not only first degree in Nursing but also Masters and PhD degrees in Nursing.   

 

We were perturbed because the attention of these CMDs had been severally called to the aberration in a series of letter written by the affected  and shortchanged Nurses, where it was elaborately pointed out that such inordinate action does not only contravene the provision of the Civil Service rule but also the position of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and that of the National Council on Establishment (NCE) ,as proclaimed at its 36th   meeting held in Akure, Ondo State in 2012, that B.Sc Nursing is the only acceptable minimum qualification for entry into the Nursing Officer Cadre (Please Kindly refer to Annexure F and G herein attached).  

 

Generally, CMDs seems to be ‘above the law’ in the Civil Service.  They seem to have a special right to honour or disregard any extant circular at will. The manner in which they had blatantly disregarded the circular directing them to pay teaching allowance to clinical Nurses and Midwives on CONHESS 07 and 08, despite strong evidence that they have received fund for such (Please kindly refer to the evidence Attached as Annexure H)  is enough reason to suggest they are ‘above the law’ . 

 

PRAYER

Members of this Association passionately pray that you graciously use your motherly heart to

i.  expedite the release of circulars implementing the NUC approved mandatory internship training and proper placement of the graduates of the Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree on at least CONHESS 09 post-NYSC as has been done for the University Graduates of other core healthcare professions.

ii. Compel FMC Umuahia and UPTH to respect the provisions of the schemes of service and urgently appoint qualified Nurses, who met the minimum qualification of first degree in Nursing, into the post of Assistant Directors of Nursing (ADN) and select the most senior among the ADNs to head the department of Nursing.

iii. Reverse all illegal promotions into the directorate cadre of Nursing made not only in FMC Umuahia and UPTH but in any other Government owned Hospital in the land.

iv. Compel CMDs to commence the payment of teaching allowance to clinical Nurses and Midwives on CONHESS 07 and 08, which they had withheld and still withholding without any justification, despite glaring evidence that they have received fund for such.

v. Ensure the supremacy, sanctity and respect for the Schemes of Service, the Public Service Rules, circulars and other extant documents guiding the Civil Service of the Federation while your tenure last.