12:53
Isaac Owili-Mensah
By Ubong Edet
The University of Calabar (UNICAL) 67th inaugural lecture which took place on 11th May, 2016 started at about 3pm with a procession by the Vice Chancellor, Management team and the inaugural lecturer. The event that took place in UNICAL International Conference Center witnessed a great turnout within and outside the school community.
The Vice Chancellor who was ably represented by DVC Academics Prof. Florence Obi in her welcome/opening speech thanked God for making the day a reality, also expresses gratitude to everyone who sidelined their different engagements to be in the lecture.
At the end, she implored everyone to sit back and listen careful as the lecture goes on.
After due introduction of the inaugural lecturer Prof. Mildred John, here comes the lecture - VALUE-ADDED NURSING CARE: BEST PRACTICE OR WISHFUL THINKING?
Prof. Mildred started the lecture by reprimanding the words of Florence Nightingale which is “Unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back” and “I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results”.
According to her, at a time the Nursing profession was at the crossroads especially in Nigeria and many other developing nations, stressing that there are so many challenges confronting the Nursing Profession in Nigeria.
These challenges according to her are the fact that the public image of the nurse is still far from good, nurses are not practicing optimally as stipulated by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as well as the shortage of Nurses have led to task shifting, and evidence-based practice not fully implemented.
She blamed the scenario in the health sector where a 21st-century medical Technology is being delivered with 20th century organizational structures and management practices, as the reason why many protocols put in place to improve patient care generally and nursing care delivery in particular merely add quantity but fail to improve the value of the care being delivered.
She noted that the ability of the nurse to respond to people’s needs within the rapidly changing environment of health care depends on the way in which nursing work is organized in the health care delivery system, the way in which nursing practice is regulated, the quality of care assured, the way in which nurse practitioners are prepared, and the way that nursing itself is defined.
Speaking further, she said the Nursing profession should be seen as an art, a science, a vocation, a profession, a practice discipline and a career about caring and it is a crucial part of healthcare delivery and the largest health care occupation accounting for about 70% of the clinical workforce in any country with goals to promote health and wellness, prevent illness and injury, restore health and alleviate suffering, ensuring that individuals, families and communities attain, maintain and/or recover optima health and wellbeing.
She concluded that value-added care is therefore the best practice and nurses must strive to use it when caring for patients in order for the profession to survive in the contemporary health care system.
She said: "based on the above discoursed, is it possible to achieve value-added nursing care as best practice in Nigeria, or is this mere wishful thinking?
" The answer to this question is a definite ‘Yes’ if the care given by the nurse involves this 7Cs – Care, Compassion, Competence, Effective Communication, Courage, Commitment, and Change in attitude (humanitude).
"These are implied in the global standards of nursing practice for patient-centered care.
A value-added nurse must contribute the following; Serving locally, transforming regionally and leading globally."
She recommended the following as prerequisites to achieving Value-Added Nursing in Nigeria:
(i) Preparing nurses in Nigeria to provide value-added care through appropriate nursing education.
(ii) Investing in up-skilling of the current workforce and employment of more nurses with Bachelor of Nursing degree in direct patient care.
(iii) Internship in nursing.
(iv) Leading change through research.
(v) Effective leadership and mentoring in nursing.
(vi) Use of theoretical models of care in patient care, especially the nursing process and caring models in Nigeria.
(vii) Improving the work environment to make it conducive to practice value-added nursing care.
(viii) Evidence- based and best practice guidelines.
(ix) Enforcing appropriate and supportive human resources policies for value-added nursing practice.
The highpoints of the lecture were the presentation of award by the vice chancellor to the Inaugural Lecturer as University of Calabar 67th Inaugural Lecturer and also declaring the lecture closed.
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