By Elijah Ugani: Health Correspondent
The Cross River State School of Nursing and Midwifery in Ogoja has been awarded full accreditation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria a statement from the state’s ministry of health says.
This is the first time the state is achieving such a feat as the commissioner for health, Dr. Inyang Asibong is said to have inaugurated a committee to drive the process for 5 more nursing and midwifery schools.
“The State has been battling for quite some time to secure full accreditation and approval for all her schools of Nursing and Midwifery, and while at it we also deemed it important to provide the basic requirements to ensure our prospective students receive the best training,” the statement qoutes Dr. Asibong who is the 2017 CrossRiverWatch Man of the year as saying during an inspection tour of the schools.
She continued: “Currently we have some repairs and renovations ongoing as well as upgrading some key areas of these schools like the libraries, laboratories, dormitories, class room blocks as well as the school perimeters.”
This is coming more than 90 days after the deadline set by Asibong in January 2017 when she said all nursing schools in the state will be accredited before the end of 2017.
“We have six schools of nursing and midwifery in the state and just before the advent of this administration, all were closed down. But now we have three functional and by the year end we want to get the other three functional and accredited, so that we can get in more nursing students,” Asibong had said during the inauguration of the board of the six nursing and midwifery schools in the state.
Meanwhile, the school of nursing in Obudu is set to commence basic midwifery program respectively following a nod by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The state is said to be facing a dearth in manpower in nursing and midwifery.
And, the Acting Director of Nursing Services in the ministry, Mrs. Rita Atuake, while commending Asibong for her role disclosed that the nursing board as well as the department of nursing services in the state are eager to welcome new students on board, as the State is in a hurry to curb the dearth of health care workers in her health sector.
“Beds, mattresses for dormitories, study kits, library furniture, dolls and laboratories have been upgraded alongside classroom blocks and the premises to meet the requirements of the nursing and midwifery council,” the statement added.
Staff and students of the schools were appreciative of “the effort of the state government,” the statement said.
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