The advocacy team of Calabar Study Centre, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Calabar, Cross River State, on Wednesday November 23rd, visited the Deparment of Nursing Services of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) for advocacy.
The team, led by the centre director, Calabar Study Centre, Prof. Onyeka Iwuchukwu, was received by the head of department, Nursing Services, Dr.Akpabio, who led the team to meet the nurses in the hall.
Iwuchukwu sensitised the nurses on the golden opportunities that abound at the National Open University of Nigeria for their personal and professional growth.
She explained that apart from their professional enhancement in the field of Nursing, they also have opportunities in Public Health Education as well as other seemingly unrelated programmes.
The director also emhasised the uniqueness of the university especially in its flexibility and timely graduation, and encouraged them to log on to NOUN website or visit the study centre for more clarifications.
The questions and answers session which followed Iwuchukwu's presentation revealed that many of the nurses did not know anything about NOUN while few of them did.
One of the nursing educators who holds a PhD indicated that he is currently a student of NOUN at the Faculty of Education.
The exchanges were quite interactive as Iwuchukwu and Mr. Mathew Akpan, PAR, answered the numerous questions of the inquirers.
An interesting aspect of the interaction was Akpabio's contribution on the issue of the duration of the Nursing programme at NOUN.
Whereas some of the nurses had advocated for a three or 2-year programme considering their RN certificates backed by relevant experience, Akpabio stated unequivocally that she preferred NOUN graduates and would not accept the 2/3-year certificates offered by some institutions.
She and other educators praised NOUN course materials and course contents.
Akpabio expressed her gratitude to Iwuchukwu for the awreness given to the nurses and disclosed that she was one of the pioneer facilitators in Nursing Science at the Calabar Study Centre.
The head of department further requested for the mounting of an M.Sc programme in Nursing Science.
Iwuchukwu promised to convey the request to the management of the university, and observed that the programme would be a very viable programme if considered, as many of the nurses especially our graduates, would enroll into it.
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