The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has performed the groundbreaking ceremony for a skills laboratory and a Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) Complex at the Edo State College of Nursing Sciences in Benin City.
Addressing journalists at the ceremony, representative of the governor and Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samuel Alli, said the skills laboratory will boost the capacity of the college in developing critical manpower to sustain ongoing reforms in the State’s health sector.
He said the milestone is part of the Obaseki-led administration’s commitment to advancing health care and nursing education in the State, noting that the government has established the Public Health Nursing Department to improve healthcare delivery and facilitate the deployment of modern technology and equipment at the College.
According to him, “The State firmly believes in investing in education and healthcare as the two most crucial for building our prosperous society. As we break the ground for this department, we reaffirm our dedication to enhancing the quality of health services in our State.
“The establishment of the Public Health Nursing Department is a testament to ensuring that every citizen of Edo State has access to world-class healthcare facilities and competent healthcare professionals by providing specialized training and equipping our nursing students with cutting-edge knowledge in public health and empowering them to become agents of change.”
Obaseki added, “Public health plays a pivotal role in disease prevention, health promotion as well as addressing the unique care challenges in our State. The curriculum in this new department will be carefully designed to incorporate modern methodology and an inter-discipline approach to solving health issues.
“We are committed to collaborating with various health institutions, both locally and internationally as we open this department. We pledge to provide our faculty with all the necessary resources and support an environment of excellence and innovation, skills and research. Our dedicated nursing educators will be instrumental in shaping nursing and public health in Edo State.”
On her part, the Provost, Edo State College of Nursing Sciences, Professor Patricia Ukaigwe, said, “Months ago, Governor Godwin Obaseki decided to revamp the School of Health Technology and amongst them is the School of Nursing. We keyed into that transformation with the reform agenda of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to house public health programmes in the College of Nursing.
“We quickly wrote to the regulating body to give us permission to transfer the existing Public Health Nursing from the School of Health Technology to Edo State College of Nursing Sciences. With that permission, we added to the existing programme that we had, which is the School of Nursing and School of Midwifery. So, now, we have the School of Public Health.
“With the whole transformation that the Governor of Edo State did for us, he gave us a separate Skills Laboratory for the School of Nursing and a separate laboratory for the School of Midwifery. He also approved a Primary Health Centre to serve the community. Etete Community will now have a Community Primary Health Center, including our Skills Laboratory. This building will also have a hub for telemedicine.”
