Coronavirus Nigerian Nurses Lash out at NCDC
The Nigeria Centre for disease control (NCDC) has been conducting series of training for Nigerian doctors and Nigerian nurses in the country and this training has given rise to some nurses calling out the NCDC over unequal pay between Nurses and doctors.
According to these nurses, NCDC is offering to pay nurses one hundred and forty thousand naira (140,000) as against the four hundred and forty thousand naira (440,000) they intend paying to doctors for a month and the doctors even refused the amount.
They said despite their training and skills, they are still being treated as trash because they are offered penny and they accept it. They asked how can somebody offer to pay nurses that ridiculous amount of money notwithstanding the risk they are exposed to as though it is less than what the doctors are exposed to, if not more because they come in contact with these patients, their fluids, etc. More often than doctors.
They pleaded with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to intervene for nurses. They said their counterparts abroad are not being treated this way. They urged their colleagues to wake up and stand on their rights because it is getting out of hand.
They added that they are ready to work for their motherland with the skills and information they have but they cannot work for that pay because it is poor. They told NCDC to take their money back because the risk os way more than the amount and if they are paying one hundred and forty thousand naira (140,000), it should cut across everybody (doctors inclusive) because they are all being exposed to the same risk.
They concluded by saying “if this should continue, they bet Nigeria will lose a lot of skillful nurses to other countries abroad that treat nurses right and respect them better “