Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma has appealed to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to consider the re-accreditation and re-opening of the schools of Nursing and Midwifery in the state.
The governor specifically appealed for the re-accreditation and re-opening of the Post-Midwifery School at Awomama, School of Basic Midwifery at Aboh Mbaise, and the School of Nursing in Owerri that have lost accreditation for 12 years.
Receiving the leadership of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria at Government House, Owerri, the Chief of Staff, Nnamdi Anyaehie, who represented the governor, said that Uzodimma had also requested the establishment of a community midwifery to be located at Awomama, to enable the state prepare the lower stage of competent and skilled midwifery practitioners for the state’s lower health centres.
Anyaehie said the governor also requested the opening and changing of programmes from basic midwifery to post basic midwifery at the School of Midwifery, Aboh Mbaise, and that in future, the state shall request for the establishment of additional programmes and the relocation of the School of Nursing, Owerri to Ahiara Mbaise, originally developed for Ahiara Polytechnic.
Uzodimma appealed for the reopening of Schools of Nursing, Owerri, now relocated to Ahiara, School of Post basic Midwifery at Aboh Mbaise, School of Post basic Midwifery at Awomama for the 2020/2021 academic year by granting concessional approval and to use their professional and kind positions to look at the urgency attached to the demand.
The governor promised to remedy the observed deficiencies noticed in the institutions to satisfy the Council’s demand as they pertain to the education and training of Nurses and Midwives.
He disclosed that the state had plan to upgrade and reorganise the state Schools of Nursing and Midwifery as follows: merge the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Ahiara and School of Post Midwifery, Aboh Mbaise, into a College of Nursing Sciences Owerri with each school becoming a department of the college.
In the same vein, the Schools of Nursing, Orlu, and School of Midwifery Awomama, he said, would be upgraded into College of Nursing Sciences, Orlu with each school as a department of the College.
He thanked the Council for approving the School of Nursing, Orlu, as the first institution to flag off Community Nursing South East of Nigeria.
Uzodimma also announced the appointment of Rev (Fr.) Wense Madu as the coordinator to deal with the re-opening of the institutions and the re-accreditations.
Earlier, the leader of the team and the Secretary/Registrar of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Alhaji Faruk Umar Abubarkar, said that they were in Imo on the invitation of the governor to look at the state of the Nursing institutions in the state and advise on the way forward.
He acknowledged the place of Imo in the training and education of nurses nationwide and described the state as strategic, holding the highest number of nurses and midwives in the national council data.
He however pointed to a lot of decay in the infrastructure at Awomama and Aboh Mbaise and requested the government to do something quickly to remedy the situation.
He disclosed the Council’s decision to approve the increase in the number of courses and intake of students.
