There is acute shortage of manpower in public health facilities – ANMN President

The Association of Nurses and Midwives of Nigeria (ANMN),on Tuesday expressed worry over the challenge of acute shortage of nurses and midwives in the public health facilities in the country.   This was the thrust of the 6th quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the association held in Osogbo, capital of Osun State with the theme: […]

The Association of Nurses and Midwives of Nigeria (ANMN),on Tuesday expressed worry over the challenge of acute shortage of nurses and midwives in the public health facilities in the country.
 

This was the thrust of the 6th quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the association held in Osogbo, capital of Osun State with the theme: “Nursing Education in Contemporary Nigeria System;Issues and Challenges”.
 

The National President of the association, Alhaji Abdrafiu Adeniji said it is imperative for the government to address the challenge of acute shortage of nurses and midwives in the public health facilities in the country so as to guarantee quality health care delivery.
 

Adeniji also urged government to provide adequate infrastructural and functional equipment in the public health facilities across the country so as to enable health workers perform their job effectively.
 

Adeniji said “this shortage is an irony of sort, in the face of ‘torrents of qualified nurses and midwives’ who are unemployed, and this anomaly has been responsible for continuous brain drain, coupled with lack of adequate remuneration and incentives”.
 

He added that stagnation in the promotion of his members and threat of demotion and reduction in the take-home pay are serious challenges facing nurses and midwives at various health facilities across the country.
 

"It is pertinent to draw the attention of the government to the acute shortage of nurses and midwives in our public health facilities in this country, despite the high numbers of qualified unemployed professionals.”

"We also want the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to look into the issues of arbitrary demotion of our members and victimisation so that there would not be brain drain.

"Our members are facing the challenge of disparity in terms of remuneration between our profession and other medical professionals. All these and many more must be addressed by the government to put the sector in a right footing," he said.