Nurses protest new verification rules by NMCN
Nurses belonging to the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Abuja chapter, took to the streets on Monday to protest against the recently released verification certification guidelines by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
The nurses expressed their discontent with what they perceive as restrictions on their career advancement opportunities and demanded that the council address issues related to nurses’ welfare, salary scale, staffing shortages, and other rights.
The protest, which attracted attention from the media, took place outside the NMCN’s office in Abuja.
The NMCN had issued a circular on February 7, 2024, outlining the revised guidelines for certificate verification for nurses and midwives, following the deactivation of the verification portal on the council’s website in December 2023.
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The circular, signed by the council’s Registrar, Dr. Faruk Abubakar, specified a non-refundable fee for verification applications to foreign nursing boards, covering courier services to relevant institutions. Eligible applicants were required to have a minimum of two years post-qualification experience and an active practicing license, with certain conditions for verification requests.
Protesting nurses and midwives brandished placards with messages advocating for better conditions and expressing their opposition to the new verification rules around the NMCN office.
Their messages included calls to address unemployment among nurses, improve welfare, combat quackery, and resist the implementation of the verification guidelines that they believe would add more challenges to an already burdened nursing community.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read, “Address unemployment among nurses, address quakery, address nurses’ welfare, and “#No to verification rules. Stop frustrating the Nigerian nurses, we are going through a lot already, protect nurses, protect healthcare, NMCN, we say no to the verification rules, NMCN, don’t reduce nurses” among others.
