‘Why training is crucial to nursing practice’
By Sade Oguntola
The Director General of National Agency for
Food and Drugs Administration and Control
(NAFDAC)
Professor Dora Akunyili, presenting
the agency’s
Information Journals to the
Belgian Ambassador
to Nigeria, Mr.Michel
Dewez, during a courtesy
visit to NAFDAC
office in Abuja, recently.
WITH the
changing world
of nursing care world, Nigerian nurses have being urged to train and retrain for them to remain relevant and abreast of developments in their profession.
Ensuring they do this will not only ensure that they optimise their potentials, it will also help in making them stand out from other medical healthcare workers.
Oyo state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Isaac Owolabi said this at the opening ceremony of the West African College of Nurse, Oyo/Osun Branch refresher course for nurses preparing for the college fellowship screening examination in Ibadan.
According to him, “the college needs to train and sustain the training process. It is important to remember that what was known five years ago may not be sufficient for adequate patient care in this day and age. When we see a professional nurse, we should recognize her and push aside auxiliary nurses claiming to be nurses.”
In a keynote address delivered at the occasion by Prof. Kunle Fajemilehin, the Head, Department of Nursing Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, he said knowledge in nursing care remains the bedrock for growth and quality care in nursing practice.
According to him, “nurses need to continually integrate knowledge with skillful practice” to make them mastery of the profession as well as not to become obsolete”.
“Nurses must marry theory and clinical practice in other to achieve quality care both for the patient, the family and the community. This will make them to be a specialized person in the nursing career,” he stated.
He reminded them that they are now liable to be sued for negligence on duty and malpractices with the National Health Insurance Scheme that is now operational in the country. He said this is especially requiring more from them in patient care.
Prof Fajemilehin urged the West College of Nursing make continue medical education courses mandatory for all nurses as well as emphasized that nursing research should center more on clinical aspects of the profession.
Mrs. Lillian Aneni, the chairman, Oyo/Osun zone of the nursing college, had earlier in her speech said the training workshop, the third of its kind, was aimed at promoting excellence in nursing education and to maintain the standard of practice in nursing.
‘Community nurses, midwives important for PHC programmes’
By Seye Adeniyi
IF the country is to
achieve a functional
healthcare sector and stem the increasing infant and maternal mortality rates , its primary healthcare system (PHC) must be refocused on community medicine.
A professor of public health and community medicine, Michael Azuzu, said this in a lecture he gave at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan titled: “Nigeria’s Health Sector Reforms and the Developmental Questions”.
According to him, there is need for the country to urgently address the problem of the inverted health care pyramid if we are to experience any meaningful development in our health care sector.
Prof. Azuzu further stated that despite the resources the country is endowed with, we still wallow in cycle of poverty and this is having serious impact on the nation’s health sector and the effect is specifically evident in the continuous increase in the rate of both infants and maternal mortalities figure.
He also stated that the country should not deceive herself by believing that they have the actual figures of infants and maternal mortalities. “Only the community nurse and midwives can get the fact, no other person has the figure. It is only the community nurses and midwives that can collate the actual figures,” he said.
He lamented onwhat he described as the pitiable and worrisome situation of the nation’s PHC programmes.
He said: “Does Nigeria even have a national health system based on a proper, responsible and workable professionals manned by community healthcare provider or givers not to talk of functional primary health care system that could be compared to what was obtainable in the past?
10% Nigerians suffer kidney disease — Expert
Muda Oyeniran, Lagos
A consultant nephrologist with the St. Nicholas Hospital Lagos, Dr. Ebun Bamgboye has stated that 1 in 10 Nigerians suffer from kidney disease.
According to him most kidney disease remained undetected until it progresses to the end stage where the situation becomes complicated requiring either dialysis or kidney transplant for the patient to survive.
“Unfortunately most kidney patients at this stage end up dying because of huge financial burden imposed on them by kidney failure,” he added.
Dr. Bamgboye who was delivering a lecture during the World Kidney Day celebration organised by the Kidney Consultant International (KCI), Lagos said kidney diseases were treatable if detected early.
He therefore appealed to all Nigerians to ascertain their kidney status.
On what causes kidney failure, Dr. Bamgboye disclosed that hypertension, diabetes and infection of kidney during childhood are the three leading causes of kidney failure.
He also revealed that increased consumption of native medication among Nigerians was responsible for the rising cases of kidney failure in the country.
While citing a recent study to buttress his point, he disclosed that people in the South-South and South-East regions of the country develop kidney failure during exhibitions of herbal medicine.
Another important cause of kidney failure according to him is the use of bleaching cream. According to him, recent studies have shown that 90 per cent of people who used bleaching creams develop kidney failure.
He also listed excessive consumption of analgesic such as paracetamol as a possible cause of kidney failure. According to him, consumption of 2kg of paracetamol over a period of two years could lead to kidney failure.
