The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has approved internship programmes for Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.
MMCN also approved indexing of nursing students at the Colleges of Nursing and the former School of Nursing, Awgu, recently also upgraded to College of Nursing.
The approvals were announced by the Registrar of the Council, Dr Faruk Umar Abubakar, when he led a delegation of the Council’s accreditation team on a courtesy visit to Governor Peter Mbah at the Government House, Enugu.
Hé commended the governor for providing the requisite infrastructure at the Colleges of Nursing, Park Lane and Awgu to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning, while also paying attention to the welfare of health workers.
Dr Abubakar announced the Council’s approval for the immediate recruitment of 50 interns to work at Park Lane. He said with the approval of the internship programme, more graduate nurses would be trained at the teaching hospital to boost the state’s nursing manpower.
Quoting him, “When you train nurses in Nigeria, they are specialists in midwifery, general nursing and public health. The internship programme will strengthen the health sector.”
He lauded Gov Mbah for approving the implementation of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for nurses, noting that the state would be able to retain a lot of its nursing manpower as they qualify. According to him, the measure would reduce migration of nurses.
Mbah, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Chidiebere Onyia, regretted the stagnation of the state’s nursing institutions for the past 19 years.
