Up to 7,000 nurses leave Nigeria each year in search of greener pastures according to official data

AS many as 7,000 professional Nigerian nurses leave the country each year for greener pastures according to information just published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

According to recent data published by Dr Faruk Abubakar, the secretary-general/registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, nurses are flocking abroad in mass numbers. He added that it was testimony to the fact that Nigeria has competent, efficient and hardworking professional nurses, who are among the best in the world.

Dr Faruk Abubakar stated this when he led members of the council to a meeting with the Delta State health commissioner Dr Mordi Ononye, in Asaba. They were in the state for a five-day workshop for examiners engaged in nursing and professional examinations.

“The council felt it is necessary that we maintain that standard and this is why in every two years we organise this workshop and make sure that the examiners that we assign and appoint to conduct professional examinations have updated knowledge in line with global practices,” Dr Abubakar said.

Nigeria has witnessed increased migration of nurses to developed nations due to push factors such as low remuneration, poor governmental policies, miserable working conditions and pull factors such as good working conditions, better pay which are offered by developed countries. Dr Ononye decried the high rate of migration of Nigerian nurses to developed countries as worrisome, adding that it must be urgently looked into with the view to check its threat to Nigeria’s health system.

Dr Ononye said: “We have a situation where human resource experts, trained and skilled at great cost to the nation are lost to our health system by migration to already developed countries. This is worrisome to stakeholders in the health sector and we welcome practical suggestions for finding solutions to this problem.

“I commend the council for organising the examiners’ workshop and the inclusion of assessment of participants as part of its training activities which no doubt has made the workshop to be more than a mere paper exercise. By this the council no doubt has set the pace for other health players in the health sector to emulate."