Experts have warned that oral health issues in Nigeria calls for attention.
There is low awareness and inadequate access to oral health care in Nigeria while the oral health care of the populace is getting worse, the morbidity is getting higher.
With the number of graduates rolled out of the nation’s universities and polytechnics, unemployment rate is getting higher in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics has put the unemployment rate in Nigeria at 23.9 per cent as of December 2011 as against 21.1 per cent in 2010 from 5.3 per cent in December 2006.
To curb the deteriorating oral health and the high unemployment rate in Nigeria therefore, the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) and the Dental Nurses Association of Nigeria (DNAN) in collaboration with The College of Health Technology, Ile-Ife based in the Foreign Links Campus and owned by an educationist and philanthropist, Dr Fola Akinosun, held a critique/curriculum development workshop for National Diploma/Higher National Diploma at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Conference Centre, Ile-Ife, Osun State from Sunday, 3rd to Friday, 8th March, 2013.
In his address at the opening ceremony on Monday, 4th March, the executive secretary, NBTE, Dr M. A. Kazaure, said the workshop, was organised to develop the curricula for the National Diploma and Higher National Diploma Dental Nursing programmes for use in schools and colleges of Health Technology and allied Health institutions in Nigeria.
The executive secretary, represented by Mr Aloysius A. Mpieri, said the workshop was aimed at giving “Dental Health Care a new phase of growth, development and global dimension which are necessary for refocusing the dental health care to meet the challenges of the nation’s health care delivery system, especially at the community level.”
While expressing the view that the workshop activities would be beneficial to the current restructuring process going on in Dental Health care training system, Kazaure said the dental health care training was to ensure that, “this cadre of health care providers obtain standard academic qualifications which are nationally and internationally recognized and acceptable; have proper job placements and assist in giving optimal health care to patients with dental health problems/challenges.”
He also expressed the Board’s appreciation to the sponsors and other stakeholders for partnering with it towards the advancement of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria.
Shedding more light on the workshop during the closing ceremony on Friday, Mpieri said that dental nursing was a new programme which curriculum had not been evolved nationally while other health programmes such as Community Health, Nursing and Environmental Health have approved curriculum.
Mpieri, who noted that dental nursing has a good prospect, said the essence of the curriculum was to train people who are in the lower cadre to assist the surgeons in the work.
The deputy Director, who said the curriculum was jointly developed with the stakeholders, added that no trainee would qualify to practice until he had completed the HND programme. In essence, the ND programme would not qualify a trainee to practice.
Other NBTE staff in attendance included Mr A. I. Ifejika, Mrs Helen O. Oduntan, deputy directors and Alhaji Y. B. Yakubu, assistant chief programmes officer.
Wondering why it had taken so long to evolve a curriculum for a course which association is 29 years old, the national president, Dental Nurses Association of Nigeria (DNAN), Alhaja Kudirat Bola Omisakin, said it was the Nigerian factor that played against the evolvement of a curriculum for the course earlier than now.
Going down memory lane, Omisakin said the course was initiated by Dr Ajayi Obe, now late. A dental surgeon himself, Dr Obe saw the need to train nurses to assist surgeons on the job just as regular nurses assist medical doctors. But unlike regular nurses who train for three years, they trained for three and a half years – three years of class work and six months of field work.
She recollected that they were 25 students in the class during their set, which was the first set which resumed in January 1980, the second set in February 1981 and the third set in April 1982. They were all females. They completed their courses and were posted to different places to work.
“The fourth set a mixture of males and females, took the examination and the interview but were stopped from resuming. It was the Ministry of Education which conducted the regular nurses’ examination that conducted ours too. We learnt that the surgeons kicked against the idea of training dental nurses, who they said would take over their jobs. We were trained to do extractions, scale and polishing and general care of the mouth. The regular nurses started a rivalry with us, saying that we should not call ourselves nurses; the Dental Surgery Assistants, now called the Dental Surgery Technicians did not also take it easy with us”, disclosed Omisakin, who is also the president, Osun State branch.
Corroborating her president, the national secretary, Mrs Olubunmi Taiwo, who doubles as the Oyo State president, said those of them in the field carried on with their duties amidst being discriminated against and continued running the association, admitting some members who were trained at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) alongside.
The other national executive members, Mrs Awogbemila Margaret, who is the treasurer and Mrs Adesida, C. F., the vice-president, expressed the association’s appreciation to Dr Fola Akinosun, the proprietor of The College of Health Technology, Ile-Ife based in the Foreign Links Campus for sponsoring the workshop.
In a chat with the Nigerian Tribune, Dr Akinosun, who noted that six dental nurses were supposed to work with a dental surgeon, said a lot of youths would become employed if they have the opportunity to train and work as dental nurses while the oral hygiene of the populace would also be well taken care of.
He also explained that institutions all over the nation, which are qualified to take the course would be allowed to do so provided they have all necessary requirement to take off.
Alhaja Omisakin, however, urged students to go for the training which she claimed is interesting and lucrative while beseeching the government to recognise their association as a body.
She also advised the populace to take very good care of their mouth, “if your mouth is not healthy, you are not healthy too. Brush twice daily. Visit the dental clinic every six months. Report any dental problem at the clinic. Take fruits, they are good for the teeth.”
Certificates of participation were presented to participants at the end of the workshop.
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