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SCHEME OF SERVICE:-
Nursing profession has been struggling to
realize its full potentialities especially in the public service of the
Federation, despite the celebrated industrial Arbitration panel “award” of
1981 which stipulated that;
a.
“Nursing is a profession “sui
generis” subject to no direction or control whatsoever by any profession
except in so far as it forms part of an organic whole;
b.
That in the health care delivery
service of the country, the nursing profession is on a parity with the
profession of pharmacy as is the case in Britain”.
Inspite of all these legal injunctions, the
profession has remained in the strong grip of another profession. The
effect of this suffocating control is that the Nursing profession has
stagnated in its adolescent age, unable to grow into a dynamic adulthood.
This necessitated all the stakeholders in this profession to agitate for the
advancement and strengthening of the cadre of Nursing to enable it realize
its full potential so as to contribute maximally to the enhancement of the
health care delivery service of the nation.
The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and
Midwives rejected the fragmented scheme of service for use in the civil
service of the federal republic of Nigeria based on the insistence of the
NCE Technical Committee on Scheme of Service to balkanize the cadre of
Nurses according to how the body of knowledge or qualification approved for
the practice of the profession was required.
The bone of contention is that Nurses who
acquired the approved knowledge from the University are adjudged to be
superior to those who acquired same knowledge from the Nursing School.
Consequently, the former are to be separated and placed on a higher salary
grading of GL. 08- 17, while the latter is to be recommended on G.L. 07-14.
NANNM kicked against this development
considering the fact that the job schedule of the two cadres are the same.
It also noted that the use of qualification alone to determine the
structure and scheme of service is against the best practices in human
resource management (HMR) in similar organizations in Britain and the USA.
As a principle, a scheme of service should
incorporate all functions of a cadre, including management and directing
functions, because they are symbiotically related. This is more relevant to
a Professional cadre, which cannot be controlled by another profession and
so all strategic functions such as management, directing, planning, policy
initiation, formulation, implementation, and monitoring must be merged into
a holistic block of jobs. That was why the NCE created only one scheme of
service for the professional cadres of Pharmacist and Medical Doctors. Why
is the professional cadre of nurses an exception to the rule so as to have
more than one scheme of service.
Arising from the above concerns, the NANNM
National President, Comrade Lawal H. Dutsinma, on the 5th July
2006 inaugurated a 23 member NANNM National Technical Committee on how to
reposition Nurses and Nursing profession in Nigeria. In his opening
remarks, he observed that better conditions of service and enhanced career
progression have umbilical relationship with improved service delivery. The
Association under his leadership considers it pertinent to improve human
capacity development with the resultant effect of re- professionalization of
Nursing and career progression for nurses
He acknowledged the efforts of the Nursing and
Midwifery Council of Nigeria and other stakeholders and urged the committee
to explore the term of reference to produce a blueprint on how to enhance
service delivery capacity of Nurses and ultimately meet the myriads of
challenges facing nursing as a profession in Nigeria.
He also informed the house that NANNM has
gathered the scheme of service of other countries like United Kingdom, and
New Zealand to further advance the cause of NANNM on the issue of
progression of Nurses.
The technical committee at the end of their two
days deliberations made very useful proposals which when approved, we are
hopeful, it will meet the yearnings and aspirations of the teeming nurses of
this country. We will keep you posted. |
