Nurses under the aegis of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), FCT chapter, protested the new verification certification guidelines recently released by the Nigeria and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) on Monday.

NMCN recently released a circular stating that nurses must have at least two years of post-qualification experience from the date of the permanent practising licence issuance before getting a verification certificate.

On February 7, the NMCN issued a circular revising the guidelines for requesting verification of certificates for nurses and midwives, which was released in December 2023 after deactivating the council verification portal.

The registrar of the council, Faruk Abubakar, signed the circular.

The circular also stated that “a non-refundable fee per application shall be paid for verification to foreign boards of nursing as specified on the portal and shall cover the cost of courier services to the applicant’s institution(s) of training, place of work, and foreign board.

“The council shall request a letter of good standing from the chief executive officer of the applicant’s place(s) of work and the last nursing training institution attended, and responses to these shall be addressed directly to the Registrar/CEO, NMCN.

“Please note that the council shall not accept such letter(s) through the applicant.”

The council also stated that applicants must have active practising licences with a minimum of six months until the expiration date, and processing of verification applications would take a minimum of six months.

It stated that the implementation of the guidelines takes effect on March 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, during the protest, the nurses expressed displeasure over what they described as an attempt to hinder their freedom to pursue career opportunities, asking the council to reverse the rule.

The nurses asked the council to address welfare, salary scale, shortage of staff, and other rights, which were carried out within the NMCN’s premises in Abuja.

The nurses and midwives were at the NMCN premises singing and carrying placards peacefully to express their displeasure.

Some placards read, “Address unemployment among nurses, address quackery, address nurses welfare”, “No to verification rules. Stop frustrating the Nigerian nurses”, and “We are going through a lot already. Protect nurses, protect healthcare.”

Speaking with reporters, one of the nurses, Cynthia Adeyeri, urged the government to prioritise improving nurses’ welfare.

Ms Adeyeri said the nurses were at NMCN to protest against the new verification rules for certificates and to give the registrar a letter to express their displeasure over the matter.

She added, “We are saying no to making us work two years before we can leave the country; we are saying no to getting a letter of good standing from the CMD from our hospitals; and we are saying no to other things in the circular.”

Another nurse, Isioma Alexis, said nurses in the country are against the circular issued by the nursing council.

She said, “There is no correlation between getting a letter of good standing from where we work and getting the verification certificate.

“We are telling them to reverse everything contained in that circular to what it used to be before; both the ones they have not even implemented or what they are still thinking of implementing are contained in that circular.”

Meanwhile, the council’s registrar, Mr Abubakar, said their complaints would be addressed as soon as possible while addressing the nurses.

“You have written your complaints, and we will look at them one by one and get back to you. Go back to your respective

places of work, and I assure you that in a couple of days, we will respond,” the registrar added.