The crux of the matter at the three-day scientific workshop on Infant and Young Child Feeding organised by the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) was the plight of nurses working in hospitals in Anambra State.

It was a general concern that nurses were always the first to come to work and always the last to sign off from duty yet their salaries and working conditions are nothing to write home about.

It will be recalled that the Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) Comrade Edith Onwuka had complained that Anambra State is the least in the implementation of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS), she said nurses were equally denied other allowances.

These denials by the Anambra State Government were some of the reasons participants at the 3-day workshop said were responsible for the incessant ‘Japa ” syndrome being experienced in the state health sector.

The Secretary of NANNM, Dr. Ikedi Onah, who stated that the essence of the scientific workshop was to keep members abreast of new developments in nursing care, stressed that hospitals were in dire need of nurses.

Onah was worried that many nurses were leaving the shores of Anambra State and the country at large due to poor salaries and inconducive working conditions. That the solution was for government to improve on condition of service and make it more attractive.

One of the resource persons at the scientific workshop, who is a Consultant with UNICEF, WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chika Ndiokwelu, said there was no way one would say nurses were well taken care of in the state because there are issues with their salaries and welfare.

The UNICEF Consultant said nurses were leaving Anambra State to places where they have better conditions of work and the few nurses left behind are over worked while some others are leaving the nursing profession and delving into other professions.

She said nurses were always the first to come to work and always the last to go; that it has been shown that a lot of nurses do not take care of themselves while they take care of others.

Ndiokwelu, who is also of the department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics of the University of Calabar, however urged government to employ more nurses while nurses take care of themselves.

Also the NANNM Chairman Nnamdi Azikiwe University Medical Centre, Lady Onyinye Enwerekowe, said they have been well equipped with the training to nurse their patients and their babies very well.

Enwerekowe who said she was in the state service before she moved on to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Medical Centre, noted that the health sector is improving because Soludo’s government employed nurses recently.

She said a lot of things have to be in place to enable nurses remain in the state because the ‘ Japa ‘ syndrome is really draining the best brains in the nursing system in Anambra State.

She also observed that nurses were in short supply in the hospitals and that in the last couple of months, they have lost about 5 nurses to Japan syndrome at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Medical Centre and that more nurses would ‘Japa’ before the year runs out.

The Unizik NANNM Chairman said solution remains that government should open up windows of employment and increase the welfare packages of nurses. (Daily Independent)

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