Foundation Partners GE Healthcare to Train Nigerian Nurses

Martins Ifijeh

General Electric (GE) in partnership with the Gamaliel and Susan Onosode Foundation (GAMSU) has announced the completion of a training programme to improve the skills of Nigerian nurses and midwives.

The programme included both theoretical and practical training for 40 student nurses and five nurse tutors of the School of Nursing, Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

The five-day programme was geared towards significantly reducing the Maternal Infant Mortality indices in Nigeria by applying the right skills and education to frontline staff who attend to women and children at birth.

According to the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world. The deaths of newborn babies in Nigeria represent a quarter of the total number of deaths of children under-five. Majority of these deaths occur within the first week of life, mainly due to complications during pregnancy and delivery reflecting the intimate link between newborn survival and the quality of maternal care. Similarly, a woman’s chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in 13.

Speaking on the development, Eyong Ebai, General Manager, GE Healthcare, West and Central Africa expressed delight in this first of its kind partnership with an NGO in Nigeria. “GE is committed to skills development in the healthcare sector in Nigeria and GAMSU is a like-minded organisation so there is a natural alignment in our objectives to bridge the skills gap in Nigeria, in this case, empowering nurses and nurse tutors with valuable clinical and leadership skills,” he said.

Speaking on the partnership, the Secretary, Board of Trustees, GAMSU, Mr. Spencer Onosode, expressed delight in partnering with an industry leader like GE Healthcare in fulfillment of one of GAMSU’s objectives to support educational institutions in Nigeria which ultimately fosters the success of the Nigerian child.

GE Healthcare is involved in several other capacity building initiatives in Nigeria with the most recent being the just concluded three-year Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) programme where 60 biomedical engineers were trained across private and public healthcare institutions. Such initiatives help reduce the burden of errors in clinical diagnosis and improves the quality of patient care in Nigeria.