Nigerian Nurses have felicitated and congratulated Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams who replaced Vivek H Murthy as Surgeon General in the United States. While speaking to a Nursingworld correspondent, Nurse Ephraim smart felicitated with Admiral Trent-Adams wishing that same could be replicated here in Nigeria. Nurse Jennifer Emelue congratulated the Admiral wishing that President Buhari would take cognizance of this development and appoint more nurses into positions of authority.

 

Admiral Trent-Adams is the first surgeon general who is not a physician and in an acting capacity . She received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, was a nurse officer in the Army and also served as a research nurse at the University of Maryland. 

 

She joined the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service in 1992 and served as the deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration before joining the surgeon general’s office.

 

This new development would invariably change the stance of other health workers on the creation of the surgeon general position

 

YOu would recall that President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 accepted in principle the creation of the post of a surgeon general which climaxed with JOHESU and AHCP threatening to go on strike in January 2014. Pharmacists under the aegis of the PSN also opposed the proposal with the then National president of the AMLSN calling it "The Greatest Joke" of 2014.