Category: News

– She is to lead 20 million Nurses worldwide as the CEO of International Council of Nurses

Isabelle Skinner is about to become the boss of every nurse on the planet.

Dr Skinner who works as the senior research fellow at the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote has today been appointed the CEO of the International Council of Nurses.

“It is very exciting for me,’ Dr Skinner said.

Dr Skinner will be packing her bags for Geneva, Switzerland this August to begin her new role.

The registered nurse, turned researcher, began her career as a remote area nurse in Cloncurry.

“I then went onto study midwifery and worked in the Kimberlys for a very long time. It has been a very varied and interesting career,” Dr Skinner said.

“It is possible to do anything from Mount Isa, for the people who have an opportunity to work out here, it is a great experience.

“You get to work with lots of different people and you really establish yourself as someone who can work in a multidisciplinary team,” she said.

“You build a lot of skills out here that you probably wouldn’t at an inner city hospital in Brisbane.”

Dr Skinner is an an experienced leader and innovator in health with 32 years of experience as a nurse.

She is passionate about improving access to specialist health care services for people in remote and rural communities around the world and has worked in remote Australia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Zimbabwe and China.

The health promotion facebook page she edits has nearly half a million followers in 49 countries. She was selected as ICN’s CEO among highly qualified candidates from around the world.

ICN president Annette Kennedy said she was delighted to welcome Dr Skinner as the new head of the council.

“The ICN board and staff look forward to working with her in this new role as CEO, as she continues and advances the tremendous work of Interim CEO Professor Thomas Kearns, leading nurses and the populations they serve to quality health care for all,” she said.

The International Council of Nurses is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide.
Source: North West Star

The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) Kwara State chapter, has suspended its strike, which commenced on April 26.

Joseph Adekanye, the state chairman of the association, stated this on Monday, during a Press Conference at the Nurses House Secretariat in Ilorin.

Mr Adekanye disclosed that the nurses decided to suspend the strike “to honour a Nurse, Rifun Kolo, who was appointed Commissioner for Health, by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara.

According to him, the association has decided to allow one of their own, a nurse, appointed as commissioner, to help the government to resolve some of the challenges in the health sector.

He said: “The commissioner came on board while we are on strike, but we have decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, between now and six months.

“If the government is serious, a space of six month`s is enough to address the issues that has been brought to the attention of the government.

Mr Adekanye listed some of the challenges the Kwara nurses were facing to include, request for 100 percent implementation of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS).

He said it was long overdue and that the nurses agreed to 10 per cent increase over the current 50 per cent CONHESS.

The chairman appealed to the state government to work hard to ensure the implementation of the CONHESS, to reduce the mass exodus of nurses and midwives from public service for greener pastures.

(NAN)

Source: Premium Times

HAAD exam for nurses is a three hours computer based test written by nurses who are trained outside the country and seeking registration with the health authority in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The exam is an objective questions based exam consisting of 150 questions covering different aspects of nursing practice, skills and competencies and administered by Pearson limited in various cities of the world.. You need to meet some requirements before you can be approved to write the HAAD exam

A major concern for international trained nurses who are sitting for HAAD is the passing score. It should be noted that HAAD exams passing rate/score for nurses is the same for all applicants and not based on percentile or any curve. HAAD examination results usually go through a standardized difficulty assessment and the passing score is usually pegged around 60-65%. The difficulty assessment scale is used to determine the level of difficulty of the questions in related to the entry level knowledge required from someone who is just entering the profession. It is how difficult the exam seems to be that determines the exact passing score.

For instance, if the difficulty assessment level is determined to be high, then the passing score will be lowered to 60% and if the difficulty assessment level is low, then you should expect the passing score to be pegged at 65%. The implication is that if the difficulty assessment level is low, a candidate will be required to get at least 98 questions out of the 150 right before he/she can be considered to have passed the exam. When the standard is adjudged to be high, then getting 90 questions right is necessary as the passing percentage drops to 60%.

There has been an unconfirmed report in the past that the passing grades can be set as low as 45% and as high as 95%, this is totally untrue.

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To make payment for renewal of license, change of name, indexing etc to the Nursing and Midwifery council of Nigeria, you can either walk into some of the participating banks and make the payment into the single Treasury Account (TSA) through REMITA or initiate the transaction from the comfort of your home.

HOW TO GENERATE REMITA RETRIEVAL REFERENCE CODE

STEP 1: Click  here

STEP 2:In Name of MDA type Nursing and Midwifery council of Nigeria; in Name Of Service/Purpose pick your purpose (e.g Renewal of license fee); Payer’s full name enter your name as it appears on your license ( Note: If you are paying for change of name please use your NEW NAME); enter the amount (if it is not already generated), your email and phone number and the captcha and click on PROCEED TO MAKE PAYMENT

STEP 3: You will be taken to your invoice page showing your Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR),the beneficiary name (NMCN), the total amount payable and the payment options available.  You have four payment options which are:
-Internet banking through: Access bank,  GTB,Sterling bank,Wema bank, Diamond,Keystone, FCMB,Zenith and Skye bank among others
-Remita (for registered users)
-Cards/Wallets: Verve, Mastercard, Visa card and Pocketmoni
-Cash payments in bank:The participating banks are; Mainstreet ,Sterling,Enterprise,Access,KBL,First Bank,Wema,Unity Bank,Heritage,Standard Chartered,Union bank,Citibank,Ecobank,Zenith bank,FCMB,Stanbic,UBA,GTB,Diamond,Fidelity and Skye bank

If you choose the bank payment option, simplycopy your Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR) ( This is the code banks required from you) and move to any of the participating banks to proceed with the payment. You are required to collect a Teller and a computer printout of your payment.

Earlier version of this post appeared thus but was deleted during a routine maintenance exercise

To make the payment, simply walk into any bank preferably First Bank and tell the teller that you want to make payment into the NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL OF NIGERIA ACCOUNT VIA REMITA. You will be asked to fill a teller and the transaction will be completed within few minutes. You will be given a COMPUTER PRINTOUT and a TELLER.

You can however start the process at home. To do this simply go to http://www.remita.net/ and click on PAY A FEDERAL AGENCY. On the page type NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL in the “Name of MDA” and wait for it to load.

In “Name Of Service/Purpose” box choose your desired service payment e.g license renewal, accreditation payment, Indexing, change of name etc.

Enter the amount, your name as it appears on your license and your email and phone numbers (optional). Then type the captcha in the box and click on PROCEED TO PAYMENT

On the payment page, you have the option of either paying online through your ATM card/Internet banking and through the bank.

If you choose the banking route, you need to copy the transaction reference number and write it on your teller.

I constantly inquire of you youth and their idea of participating in active politics and the response most often is laughable, some possess very terrible ideologies brought about by the media and negative depiction by nollywood. Some say, when I ask why they detest politics, politics is a dirty game, politics is- who knows you?, politics is evil etc. They even go as far as admonishing that I steered clear of it, especially when I expose my intention of participating in politics.
POLITICS AND OUR WORLD
What people don’t understand is that every aspect of our lives is governed by politics, if I must eat good food, it is politics, if I have to enjoy good health, politics, if I should gave sound education, politics. There is nothing we do that keeps politics apart.

Politics is all about making acquiring power for the better policy making, it is an active participation in community and community issues.

Unlike most advanced countries where youth are guided through to becoming leaders, ours is a case where youth are scared to their marrows with politicians using them for devious means, the media portraying it as evil and dirty.

When we hunger for change, it is up to us to great that change, if we feel our politicians have failed us, it is up to us to get involved and change processes, cha he laws and make life better for our country. It is easy to wail but that in totality does not take us an inch away from our current position.

POLITICS AND NURSING – THE WAY TO GROW
I decided to save this for now, best wine last… We were discussing the plight faced by health workers especially nurses and how policies were not aptly made or when made were not executed to the latter, after various stories, I mentioned that all these were reasons why every nurse ought to be in politics, and our lecturer asked ‘if we all get into politics, who will do the job?’
Being in politics does not stop a nurse from doing his or her job, actually, when we can change stiff laws and policies, it makes our job even more enjoyable.

Recently, the Kenyan nurses association dragged the government to court because the government seems to be playing favouritism on the part of doctors, this is because doctors occupy top positions, every fund for health will go through them before it gets to others. The case is not different from what we are experiencing here in Nigeria, who is the minister of health? Who is the minister of labour? Now how can nurses get the desire for consultancy status and residency and prescribing right when no one is there to fight for us?

Power isn’t evil, we do not need to fear it, no one will remember you because you were verily afraid, no one will appreciate you because you are perfect at running away. Think of how far nursing has come, why are we now an independent profession, who made that possible? Fearless nursing theorist, practitioners, advocates etc who desired the betterment of nursing profession accomplished all those for us, what are YOU doing to change things, do YOU like the status quo? Or you just want to complain?

SAY NO TO COMPLAINING AND GET TO GET WORK.

— Human right is not what is placed on the table, it is what you go out and fight for —

Thanks

By Godwin Imeka RN

Many people think that this field is filled with sadness. And while it does have its difficult days, oncology nursing is also extremely rewarding. I’ve heard that most nurses don’t know their specialty when they apply for nursing school. That makes me an outlier, because I knew before I ever applied to school. I am studying with the goal of being an oncology nurse.

When people ask my chosen field and I tell them, the question of “why?” quickly follows. Because after all, this is “such a hard field,” and “there is so much despair and sadness with cancer.” To those who have said that before, or even to those who can relate to the statements above, I’d like to take a brief moment of your time to provide a differing perspective.

Cancer is hard. It is draining and takes a toll on life. It is a terrible disease that does much damage, and not every story ends well. But it is also so much more than that. I understand that from the outside looking in, the field of oncology may look full of despair. But having worked in various aspects of this field, I think that there is far more hope than despair. There is so much hope for a cure that seems to be just beyond the horizon.

Yes, death occurs in the field of oncological medicine. It also occurs, at some point, in every aspect of life. In western culture, we tend to shun death. When in truth, it is an important aspect of every life.

As a nurse, we get to help guide somebody and be privy to an incredibly intimate moment in somebody’s life. We get to see the success when that patient gets good news. We also are blessed with the chance to hold a patient’s hand through what may be the end of their f life.

Through time, I have come to feel that one of the most important things within oncology is to be positive. I am not suggesting being ignorant to the realities of cancer. No, I am simply saying that as a caregiver, how we present ourselves to patients and families matter. Through my sister’s journey, we were lucky to be graced with nurses and a care team filled with positivity.

In watching them, I came to understand the field of nursing – specifically oncology nursing, and found my calling in life. While this field can be hard, I find that it is often far more rewarding.

So, next time you see somebody who works in oncology, or even somebody like myself who will one day work in the field, I would like to challenge you. I challenge you to stop and think about some of words that I have written above, and to be like the oncology nurses we were lucky enough to have and practice the power of positivity.

By Kim Johnson | Curetoday
About The Author:
Kim is a nursing student who is hoping to find her place amongst the phenomenal oncology nurses and doctors who cared for her sister. She loves reading, volunteering and enjoying the outdoors of Colorado

Many people think that this field is filled with sadness. And while it does have its difficult days, oncology nursing is also extremely rewarding. I’ve heard that most nurses don’t know their specialty when they apply for nursing school. That makes me an outlier, because I knew before I ever applied to school. I am studying with the goal of being an oncology nurse.

When people ask my chosen field and I tell them, the question of “why?” quickly follows. Because after all, this is “such a hard field,” and “there is so much despair and sadness with cancer.” To those who have said that before, or even to those who can relate to the statements above, I’d like to take a brief moment of your time to provide a differing perspective.

Cancer is hard. It is draining and takes a toll on life. It is a terrible disease that does much damage, and not every story ends well. But it is also so much more than that. I understand that from the outside looking in, the field of oncology may look full of despair. But having worked in various aspects of this field, I think that there is far more hope than despair. There is so much hope for a cure that seems to be just beyond the horizon.
Yes, death occurs in the field of oncological medicine. It also occurs, at some point, in every aspect of life. In western culture, we tend to shun death. When in truth, it is an important aspect of every life.

As a nurse, we get to help guide somebody and be privy to an incredibly intimate moment in somebody’s life. We get to see the success when that patient gets good news. We also are blessed with the chance to hold a patient’s hand through what may be the end of their f life.

Through time, I have come to feel that one of the most important things within oncology is to be positive. I am not suggesting being ignorant to the realities of cancer. No, I am simply saying that as a caregiver, how we present ourselves to patients and families matter. Through my sister’s journey, we were lucky to be graced with nurses and a care team filled with positivity.

In watching them, I came to understand the field of nursing – specifically oncology nursing, and found my calling in life. While this field can be hard, I find that it is often far more rewarding.

So, next time you see somebody who works in oncology, or even somebody like myself who will one day work in the field, I would like to challenge you. I challenge you to stop and think about some of words that I have written above, and to be like the oncology nurses we were lucky enough to have and practice the power of positivity.

By Kim Johnson | Curetoday
About The Author:
Kim is a nursing student who is hoping to find her place amongst the phenomenal oncology nurses and doctors who cared for her sister. She loves reading, volunteering and enjoying the outdoors of Colorado

The Nursing And Midwifery Council Of Nigeria yesterday the 20th of March 2018 opened its portal for registration of students for its May 2018 professional exams. The portal according to its released memo would remain open from the 20th of March to the 6th of April 2018. This was contained in a letter addressed to all Principals, Schools of Nursing, Principals Schools of Post Basic Nursing (Specialties) in all States & Abuja, HOD’s Departments of Nursing and all Nigerian Universities offering degree in Nursing and tittled: RE: MAY 2018 PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATION FOR GENERAL AND POSTBASIC NURSES- OPENING OF THE EXAMINATION PORTAL

The letter was signed by the HOD Exams Anslem-Nnadi Mercy (Mrs) for the Secretary-General/Registrar and reads:

I am directed to inform you that the Council’s Examination portal is opened from Tuesday. March 20th – Friday April 6th, 2018 for all your eligible candidates for May 2018 Professional Examination for General and Post basic Nurses to complete the online application for the examination.

Please note that there will be no extension after this date and all payment of the examination fee MUST be done within this same period.

However on the payment process, the Examination fees of N38,500 for Basic Nursing programmes in Schools of Nursing/Department of Nursing and N41,250 for Post Basic Nursing programmes as applicable to your school is to be paid by each of your candidate to Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria through remita platform in any of the commercial banks.

The total sum for the school should be paid in bulk in the name of the school through remita. After successful online application and payment, a covering letter stating the names of the students who had applied for online Examination application with the original tellers of payment (remita payment slip) should be sent to the Registrar’s office in Abuja immediately after payment has been made.

For fresh candidates, the consultancy fees of N2,995 for Basic Nursing programmes in Schools/Department of Nursing and N3,187.50 for Post Basic Nursing programmes as applicable will appear on the portal and on the netpostpay slip. This should be paid individually to netpost pay through NIBBS e-bills payment platform in any commercial banks or acceptable payment channels such as debit card payment or internet banking payment platform.

Please note that amount that will appear as consultancy fees for resit candidates depends on the number of papers each resit candidate is resitting.

You are expected to pass this information to all your students and guide them properly to ensure that they initiate the right application on the portal.

Your cooperation is essential to achieve this please.

Thank you for your usual support in promoting and maintaining excellence in Nursing Education and Practice

-All who graduated from March 2016 to September 2017 to be deployed

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency has begun mobilizing 1,586 basic midwives for deployment to primary health centres nationwide in a modified Midwives Services Scheme (MSS).

All graduated from midwifery schools between March and September in 2016 and 2017, and the deployment is a one-year posting mandatory before they are licensed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

The MSS using older midwives was modified to use young graduates in efforts to cut costs, according to NPHCDA executive director Faisal Shuaib.

“This has the dual advantage of providing practical experience to the midwives prior to full certification as well as ensuring availability of skilled health workers in the very rural facilities,” he said in a statement at the start of a five-day orientation for midwifery graduates from the north central zone.

“In addition, the cost of running this new scheme would be very much less than that of the old MSS. This change of approach has remained valuable to the successful implementation of the project.”

The orientation has been zoned to save graduates the cost of travelling to a national orientation venue.

It covers training in basic guide and monitoring for routine immunisation, disease surveillance, data management, cold chain management of vaccines.

Before their licensing and deployment to designated primary health centres, the regulatory council will verify the midwives’ certification and take biometrics for documentation on the council’s database.

By: Judd-Leonard Okafor
Daily Trust News