ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, YENAGOA
The Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has called on the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) to restructure its curriculum to promote practical experience of student nurses and other trainees in health institutions.
Diri made the call while declaring open the 2021 Examiners’ Workshop organised by the NMCN, in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The theme of the workshop is, ‘Enhancing Professional Nursing and Midwifery Examinations Outcomes Through Educator-Clinician Synergy’.
Diri, who was represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo suggested that more emphasis should be placed on continuous assessment than on examinations for grading and certification of trainee nurses.
He maintained that the Nigerian public education system had placed too much emphasis on paper qualification at the expense of technical and practical skills that are actually needed to drive national development.
He noted that experience had shown that students and teachers have the capacity to easily compromise any education curriculum in the country that is strictly examination-based.
According to him, it is not the paper on which the certificate is printed that makes a professional nurse, but the practical skills he or she acquires through training.
Diri seized the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements his administration had recorded in the health sector to include the completion and inauguration of the Referral Hospital at Kaiama.
Others, according to him, include the full accreditation of the Faculty of Nursing at the Niger Delta University, NDU and upgrading of the School of Nursing Tombia to a full-blown College of Nursing and Midwifery, thereby increasing its admission capacity from 75 students to about 200 intakes per session.
Diri stated: “The theme of your workshop is quite apt, but do we still need exams in this era and time? Is an exam a true test of the students’ knowledge? We have over-emphasized certificates to the detriment of technicality, and sometimes technicality wins the day instead of the intellectuality that we exhibit.
“Quite a number of Nigerians are intellectuals, but most of us are not technical. And that is why instead of taking the path of the industrial revolution, we are going on the lane of intellectualism.
“I don’t believe that practical-oriented courses like medicine, nursing, pharmacy, community and environmental health and the rest of them should be based on examination for the convocation of students.
“I think more practicals and hands-on practice will make them more effective. The distinction of a nurse is not her good English, but that the nurse is able to do the practical components of her job.”
In her remarks, the First Lady of Bayelsa State, Dr. Gloria Douye Diri commended the Council of the NMCN for their favourable disposition towards upgrading the School of Nursing to collegiate status.
According to Mrs Diri, the upgrade will impact positively on the curricular activities and graduands of the institution.
Also speaking, the Secretary and Registrar of NMCN Governing Council, Alhaji Faruk Abubakar, stated that the workshop was a biennial event in the calendar of the NMCN. He said the event would help deepen and update the knowledge and skills of current and prospective Council Examiners on their roles and responsibilities.