Nursing Council inducts first UniJos graduate nurses 10 years after start of program

Awashima Bisibi Ati

The first set of nursing graduates were on Wednesday inducted at the University of Jos, 10 years after the university established its Department of Nursing.

The university started graduating nursing students in 2013, but they had not been inducted for professional practice by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, which regulates the profession in Nigeria.

The 52 newly qualified nurses have among them 18 males, one male student having died in the course of the five-year programme.

The Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the university, Simon Yiltok, described the induction as the climax of studies for any medical science course.

“This occasion is the first to be conducted for graduands of Nursing Science since we started producing graduate nurses in 2013,” Mr. Yiltok stated at the ceremony.

“This is coming 10 years after the department was established.

“This is a programme that is highly sought after in any university where the programme is run. In the last admission (2016/2017 session), we (the Faculty of Medical Sciences) accepted over 25,000 candidates for screening, 29.6 per cent of them applied for Nursing Science,” Mr. Yiltok stated.

In his address at the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Sebastian Maimako, admonished the graduands to be good ambassadors of the institution through quality and professionalism in their practice.

The students were inducted by the Registrar and Secretary General of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Faruk Abubakar, who was represented at the ceremony by the Director of Administration of the council, Magaret Eze.

Mr. Abubakar charged the inductees to ensure strict observance of the code of ethics of the nursing profession.

Earlier, the Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences Mr. Yiltak, appealed to the university authorities to retain first class students to lecture in the institution.

Nwankwo Ngozi was the best graduating student, while another female graduand, Ati Awashima, was awarded the best graduating student in professional exams.

Photo credit Ati Terkula