The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN); has fully
accredited the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Maiduguri to commence
higher national diploma (HND) programmes.
The accreditation was secured 40 years; after College’s establishment,
before World Health Organisation (WHO) support with EU funding to
install modern equipment, facilities and other tools for
accreditation.
While announcing accreditation at WHO weekly snapshot in Maiduguri,
the Provost of College of Nursing and Midwifery, Hajiya Rukaiya
Shettima disclosed: “The items and facilities donated for
accreditation, include laboratory equipment, classroom furniture,
library books, practical teaching tools, hospital beds and computers.”
According to students and staff of College; “WHO’s supported equipment
and facilities have also made teaching and learning much easier and
friendly among us.”
Rukaiya also noted that she has the opportunity to share ‘unique
complementary experiences’ of this school.
Excited over the accreditation, she said: “As a student nurse in the
then School of Nursing and now as a staff, in fact, the Provost of the
school, now College of Nursing and Midwifery.
“Although the School of Nursing was established in 1971 by the defunct
government of northern Nigeria, I gained admission to study nursing in
1981.”
Continued; “As a student nurse in the 1980s, I still recall how we
struggled to memorize procedures, role-play steps and imagine
practical approaches for activities we hadn’t adequate equipment for
practical.
“Despite the challenges, studying nursing in this school in the 1980s;
was fun and a privilege, yet more arduous.”
She said that without full accreditation of Borno College of Nursing
and Midwifery, the school was limited to a sparse curriculum with few
students.
According to her; the low enrollment of students was due to inadequate
facilities and teaching staff.
“Without full accreditation, a nursing school is limited to admitting
a certain number of students and offering a handful of healthcare
programmes,” she warned, noting that; “Now as a staff of the college
since 1991, things have changed a lot with WHO’s support and EU
funding.”
While lamenting state of College before accreditation, she said: “The
quality of training and learning started declining over the years due
to College’s obsolete equipment.
“Its facilities are; also outdated with the exodus of many skilled
teachers who left for safety or greener pastures; particularly during
the decade long Boko Haram insurgency in northeast; Nigeria.
She said that until 2016, the state government with technical support
of EU and WHO upgraded the School to a College of Nursing and
Midwifery.
“As a College of Nursing and Midwifery, the school continues to
operate with partial accreditation, until WHO, with EU funding;
supported the College with laboratory equipment and reagents,” she
said.
According to her, the equipping of College with information technology
tools; including computers, modern nursing textbooks and classroom
facilities fully accredited it.
She said the equipping of College enabled full accreditation in 2020,
forty years after it was established in the state.
Rukaiya, visibly excited; declared: “With the full accreditation
today, teaching and learning at the College of Nursing and Midwifery
in Maiduguri have improved tremendously.” noting that in the last
Nursing Examinations, almost all the students scored 95 per cent.
She further disclosed that this enabled the College increase its
admissions of students by 300 per cent in Basic Nursing programmes,
Basic Midwifery, Community Nursing and Midwifery.
While College’s curriculum, she added; has been expanded to include
community midwife and nursing among others.
“This College can now award a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Nursing
and Midwifery,” she said, while thanking WHO support with EU funding
for the full accreditation.
