The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, has called on the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, NMCN, to embark on redefinition of the nation’s nursing profession by setting standards for qualification as a nurse.

Prof Chukwu stated this at the event marking this year’s commemoration of Nurses Week in Abuja recently. He said he was disturbed by controversies over who a real nurse was in the country, as according to him, there had been rivalries among two different groups, calling for being recognized as genuine nurses. The scuffle, he noted was as a result of the “Dual System” being practised in the profession in Nigeria. His words: “Graduate nurses always write and warn me even when I was CMD. “Please, don’t allow this mixture.” Others will write to me, “first and foremost, the profession is called nursing. It is either you are a nurse or you are not a nurse.” I thought over some of those things; and the truth is this: It is the job of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to tell us who is a nurse. They are the authority; we cannot run away from it because they advise the Minister on what is, and they advise the President on what is. They law empowers them. Except the law changes, for now, they are the ones empowered. It is them that will say “a nurse has this qualification. Now, whoever they register as a nurse is a nurse.

“But, this is a trying period. The Medical and Laboratory Council went through this period. At a time, they decided that “look, anybody that doesn’t have this degree will not be registered as Medical Laboratory Scientist. You have to work with all of us. When you decide that, you have to be sure you are now ready to create a sub-cadre, maybe nurse assistant. That is not a nurse. Like in USA where you have physician assistant, he is not a physician. Nursing Council will no longer register such people as nurses. They will probably be registered as nurse assistant. A nurse can only be defined by clear-cut definition.

“Sometimes, this thing takes time because you are also looking at the critical number. If you now want to tell the whole country, ‘look, only 1000 persons can be nurses; they are going to ask questions. The Minister will be the first to ask question. “If these are now the nurses, then, we will have problems. It means we can’t satisfy even a few hospitals here in Abuja.’ So, look at it that way that probably, you may have to have a transition period. And, as you are having that transition period, the people now coming in gradually, you will be encouraging,” the Minister added.