The Federal Government has said that the number of nurses working in the public health care system in the country is not enough to handle the responsibilities of the system.
The FG said it was worried about nurses leaving the country to work in other places.
Dr. Faruk Abubakar, who is the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, spoke at the matriculation ceremony of the Merit College of Nursing Sciences in Orlu, Imo state. He said that the country needed 800,000 nurses to take care of health issues, but the public health sector only had about 400,000 nurses.
Abubakar said, “In the nursing field, there is a brain drain. We need about 800,000 nurses to handle the problems in our public health care system, but we only have about 400, 000. But the good news is that the fact that our nurses are going abroad shows that they are important all over the world.
He praised Dr. Chika Ugbaja, the owner of Merit College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu, for starting the school to train people who could help the public healthcare sector of the country deal with the problems it faces.
Abubakar said, “I applaud Dr. Chika Ugbaja for opening this school in Nigeria after working for many years in the U.S. Merit College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu, will train nurses and midwives who are good at what they do.
Dr. Prosper Obinna, who is the state commissioner for health, said that the state government was committed to working with the College to meet the people of the state’s health care needs.
Rev. Augustine Ukwuoma, the bishop of the Orlu Catholic Diocese, said that the Merit College of Nursing Sciences Orlu would help the people of the state meet their health care needs.
