FUOTUOKE: Nursing & Midwifery Council of Nigeria Verification Panel Gives Pass Mark to Faculty of Nursing

The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has given the Faculty of Nursing Sciences, Federal University Otuoke a pass mark for meeting the basic foundation requirements for the Faculty made up of four Departments, which are the Department of Medical/Surgical Nursing, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing, Department of Maternal and Child Health Nursing, and the Department of Community Health Nursing, Myschoolnews report.

The Director S/Accreditation and Head of the Verification Panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr. Ndagi Alhassan disclosed this while giving the exit report on Tuesday, 31st October, 2023 at the office of the Vice Chancellor, West Campus, Federal University Otuoke.

Dr. Alhassan congratulated the Vice Chancellor, Professor Teddy Charles Adias for this groundbreaking achievement and extolled his sterling support and passion for establishing the Faculty of Nursing Sciences FUO, stating that “no career is nobler, none more-rewarding than caring for patients and saving lives. Nursing is our field, life-saving our goal. We love our job and we’re proud to be Nurses.”

Dr. Alhassan noted that actualization of the vision and commitment of resources into putting up the structures for the four programmes in the Faculty is commendable. “You said it and you started it with much passion that anybody that visits the University will have no any other option than to support you to continue to do what you’re doing,” he said.

He stressed that the topography of the whole environment and the basic foundation requirements were all in place for a smooth take-off of the Faculty of Nursing Sciences in FUO and prayed for the continued guidance of the Lord for the VC to actualize his visions and missions in the noble University.

The Head of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) team, Dr. Ndagi Alhassan summarized the findings of the Verification Panel to include an environment that is conducive for learning with adequate manpower, noting that the staff of the four programmes of the Faculty all have the requisite qualifications. He also emphasized that the programmes have training manuals that met the basic foundations for learning despite teething challenges.

Dr. Ndagi, however, observed that the Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, Dr. Edet Umoh did not show the Verification Panel the University Library, the ICT Unit, and other departmental requirements such as the radio room, the Gross Anatomy unit, the Biochemistry and Physiology laboratories, among others. He said the Dean probably reckoned with these aspects as advisory and not as necessary components of the Faculty structures.

In terms of training manuals, he advised on areas of subsequent improvements to cover contemporary realities of Nursing. He also hinted that some discrepancies in letters of staff employment in the Faculty are some grey areas that requires prompt attention by the Management.

In response, the Vice Chancellor Professor Teddy Charles Adias thanked the Verification Panel from the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) for a job well-done. He noted that in this year (2023) alone, 13,000 Nurses have migrated to greener shores, which is alarming and situates Nigeria as a training hub for other countries.

“For every hospital in the United Kingdom, you see more Nigerians than any other nationals and they’re doing really well. So, the Faculty of Nursing Sciences is part of the additions we’re going to have in the Nursing practice and we have to commend ourselves on how well we’ve fared so far. What you’ve seen is true, and that’s our story. Our duty is to offer a commitment for continuous improvement, which we’ll do, As you have rightly observed, there’s room for continuous improvement,” Professor Adias said.

The Vice Chancellor emphasized that the University enjoys a very firm ICT support as part of the oversight functions, adding that the whole campuses are being integrated into the optical fibre network for ease of Internet access. “As it is now, we have two Internet Hotspots in two dedicated centres in the University. We operate two campuses, the East and West Campuses. We’re also mounting the solar inverters provided by the National Communication Commission (NCC). We have 100KVA battery and so we’re promising to give to the Faculty of Nursing Science 10KVA,” he said.

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According to the VC, the University Library is well-equipped and functional with two repositories for online subscriptions and more than 33,000 repositories of which Nursing has enough share, including relevant books. That the Verification Panel did not get to see all of these may have been an oversight, he said.