By: Oluwafunke Ishola (Nan)
Nigeria, like many other African countries, suffers a talent escape from its fragile health sector as the richest countries attract poorly paid but qualified professionals.
The Nation Nursing Force is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, one that has deep implications for public health systems, economies and the future of medical care.
Nurses, essential for the provision of medical care, face more and more unsurpassed challenges that undermine their well -being and threaten their ability to provide high quality care.
The hospitals are of short staff, but the recruitment is slow or non -existent.
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The low wages, the harsh working conditions and the generalized exhaustion make the nursing less attractive in Nigeria, which leads to the migration of scarce qualified professionals to countries with better work environments.
According to the National Association of Nurses and Woods of Nigeria (Nannm), 15,495 nurses have abandoned Nigeria for foreign practice as of February 2025.
Transcendence
His president, Haruna Mamman, warned that the trend was alarming, emphasizing her threat to the provision of timely and quality medical care in the country.
Mamman blamed the situation of the slow government action on the welfare of nurses, pointing out the service scheme, approved in 2016 but was not yet glad in nine years later.
He argued that producing more nurses will not stop the migration trend, but could create official charlatans, urging the government to address the factors that drive nurses to leave, such as a bad remuneration, well -being and working conditions.
The interim regional director of Africa, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said that 42 percent of nurses in Africa intend to emigrate.
“This is an alarming trend that runs the risk of draining critical talent and undermining our most fragile systems.
“Nurses represent 66 percent of the projected deficit of the region of 6.1 million health workers by 2030,” said Ihekweazu.
He pointed out that this shortage limits access to essential services, from maternal and child health to chronic diseases and decreases progress towards universal health coverage.
Despite the growing crisis, many countries still depend on short -term reactive strategies to address the challenges of the nursing workforce, said a report by the International Nursing Council (ICN).
“These workforce plans tend to focus predominantly on increasing the offer of new nurses, often through immigration dependence.
“While this can provide temporary relief, recently to address underlying problems, such as the retention of workforce, professional progress and the empowerment of nurses to work in all their scope of practice.
“As a result, these efforts fail to build a sustainable nursing workforce capable of satisfying future medical care demands,” ICN said.
ICN and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 'Nursing Report of the State of the State 2025', stressed that inequalities in the global nursing workforce leave many of the world's population without access to essential health services, which could threaten progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), global health safety and development objectives related to health.
Experts claim that addressing the nursing crisis requires long -term sustainable strategies that invest in the welfare of nurses, recognizing their direct impact on the improvement of the provision of quality medical care, the increase in the retention of the workforce and economic productivity.