Tired depressed female african scrub nurse wears face mask blue uniform gloves sits on hospital floor. Exhausted sad black doctor feels burnout stress of corona virus frontline protection pray at work
For years, brain drain in Nigeria’s medical sector has longed for solutions and the Nigerian Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMCN) thought they found a way: to tie down the nurses in the country.
This is reflected in the NMCN’s recent update on its guidelines for the verification of nurses’ certificates with the council. They now require nurses to have a minimum of two years post-qualification work experience in Nigeria from the date of issuance of permanent practising licence before their certificates can be verified by foreign nursing boards.
Nurses believe the guideline is meant to stop them from seeking opportunities abroad, despite the poor treatment they are subjected to in Nigeria. According to midwifery practitioners, up to 100,000 nurses are without jobs in the country and the council is not doing enough to ensure the availability of jobs.
The guidelines, meant to take effect in March, will enslave the nurses in the country, violating their right to equal opportunities and subjecting them to discrimination.
In the past five years, over 75,000 nurses and midwives have left the country to seek greener pastures, revealed the NANNM. And the mass exodus is unconnected to poor wages and lack of decent work environments for the nurses, noted Michael Nnachi, the president of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives.
Nurses believe the new guideline is meant to stop them from seeking opportunities abroad, despite the poor treatment they are subjected to in Nigeria.
“Shortage of nurses and midwives, especially in certain areas of specialization and geographic regions, the increased rates of attrition and a chronic shortage of nursing personnel in the country increased workloads on nurses without an equivalent compensation, exposing them to more health hazards and compromising the quality of healthcare delivery,” said Nnachi.
Proposing arbitrary solutions to the brain drain in the medical sector did not start with the midwifery council. In 2023, Nigerian lawmakers proposed a bill to prevent indigenous medical practitioners from being granted full licences until they have worked for a minimum of five years in the country. After a national outcry, the lawmakers set the bill aside.
