The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria has made a strong case for the establishment of colleges of medicine in rural communities for adequate manpower to tackle health challenges in the country.
The council stated that when the colleges are established in rural areas and professionals are trained in those colleges, they will attract more interest and create primary, secondary and tertiary health centres across the country.
Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Dr Farouk Umar Abubakar, stated this at the Blessed Martins International Institute of Science and Technology, Ohatekwe Amagu in Ikwo Local Area of Ebonyi State, during the approval of the College of Medicine Science in the Institute.
“When you train a young lady who is brought up in the urban area, you don’t expect her to go back to the rural areas, but when you bring the training to the communities, they will show interest and man our primary health centres, secondary level and tertiary level so that when we take enough at the level of our communities, then we inject them into the urban areas as well as the national level and the globe, and this is the idea of encouraging and establishing these colleges at the community levels,” he stated.
He noted that the council was in the school to inspect the level of preparedness for the takeoff of the College of Medical Science.
He said: “We are here to see things physically and see the level of preparedness for the taking off of Blessed Martins College of Medical Science that is well established and from the assessment, we have gone round.
“We have seen adequate provisions of resources. We start with the physical facilities; there are an adequate number of classrooms, demonstration rooms, and laboratories being provided in numerous departments.
“The environment is well placed for the takeoff of the training of nurses and midwives. In terms of manpower, from the available checklist to us, there are a reasonable number of qualified, educated nurses and midwives that will provide the necessary teaching-learning experience, in addition to other supporting staff in the areas of science—Medical Sciences, Physiology, Anatomy, Biochemistry and other related sciences—are all available and this is what is expected.”
The proprietor of the institute, Chinedu Ogah, said he established the College of Medical Science to reduce unemployment in society and create access to healthcare services.
Nursing Council calls for establishment of colleges of medicine in rural areas