AN EXAMINATION OF JAPA OF MEDICAL DOCTORS ON NURSING PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The nurse by vocation is not above the medical doctor in medical practice. Rather the nurse is a professional trained to assist the medical doctor in curative care and at the same time also assist the patient in the healing process. The nurse must fulfill the above dual functions in line with stipulated codes and regulations of the nursing profession within a given locale. Despite the specialized training, the nurse is not permitted to perform diagnosis on the patient; because, she is not trained to undertake such operations. The challenges in these times however, have come to be the expansion of the nurses’ duty particularly in the face of the current shortage of medical doctors; which in turn flows from the unregulated migration popularly known as ‘Japa’ of medical doctors out of the country as Nigeria must provide for the healthcare needs of the citizens. Are the nurses then expected to fill in the ever-widening gaps in order to meet healthcare demands? Currently, Nigeria faces impending futuristic crises as in recent times, it has been predicted that Nigeria stands the risk of a collapsed healthcare system in the coming years if she is unable to end the mass movement of her teeming healthcare workforce out of the country and meet the healthcare needs of her citizens. This paper therefore seeks to highlight the effect of the unregulated mass migration of medical doctors on nursing practice in Nigeria generally, by outlining the general duties of the nurse. This paper employs the doctrinal research method and recommends that nurses by virtue of the nature of their training and despite their varied specializations in their care for patients, are largely unfit to replace medical practitioners as doing so will lead to a prevalence of nursing negligence