By Muhammad Amaan
The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has appealed to the Federal Government to review the guidelines for the planned verification of their certificates.
The National Chairman of the association, Mr Morakinyo Rilwan, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna.
He said the association, after receiving a memorandum from the Federal Government, decided to appeal for the review of the guidelines.
“One of the guidelines stipulates that eligible applicant must have a minimum of two (2) years post qualification experience from the date of the issuance of permanent practicing licence.
“In as much as we do not support applications with provisional licence, we recommend that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria should remove this item.
“This is due to the fact that requirements for employment should be determined by a prospective employer,” he said.
According to him, the council shall request a letter of good standing from the Chief Executive Officer of the applicant’s place of work.
“The last nursing training institution attended and responses on these shall be addressed directly to the Registrar/CEO, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
“We reject entirely obtaining a Letter of good standing from the Chief Executive Officer of the applicant’s place of work.
“This is because we consider them as subordinating nurses to the whims of Doctors and a letter of good standing from the last nursing training institution attended amounts to a duplication.
“Processing of verification application takes a minimum of six (6) months,” he said.
Mr Rilwan said that going by the laudable achievements of the council in the deployment of appropriate information and communication technologies in line with global best practices, verifying an applicant should be a click away.
He said, “Therefore, we recommend that processing of an application for verification should take a maximum of two weeks.
“We sincerely hope that our recommendations will be given due consideration in view of the uproar this circular has caused in the community of Nigeria nurses.”
The Federal Government had earlier sent a memorandum to the association, which is to be affected by March 1,2024.
It stated, “The council shall request a letter of Good Standing from the Chief Executive Officer of the applicant’s place(s).
And the last nursing training institution attended and responses on these shall be addressed directly to the Registrar/CEO, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
“An applicant must have an active practicing licence with a minimum of six months to expiration date.
“Applicants must upload Certificate(s) of Registration only. Notification of Registration is not acceptable.
“The applicant shall receive prompt notice via his/her email and dashboard on the status of the verification application.
“Processing of verification applications takes a minimum of six (6) months.
“All applicants shall ensure that complete requirements are met before initiating verification application as incomplete documentation shall not be processed.”
According to Rilwan, the implementation of these guidelines takes effect from I st March, 2024.
He added, “All pending verification applications before these revised guidelines will be processed accordingly.”
