Quackery cannot be overemphasized in any part of the world neither can it be in any kind of profession. Every relevant professional institution tend to have some outsiders who try to exhibit and copy play their activities even without passing through a defined academic training with an appreciable or comprehensible certificate to complement it. Show me a profession without quacks and I will show you a profession that is not relevant and noble. Nursing is a scientifically noble profession and hence most individuals want to practice it zealously even without a formal training. Every profession in this context has to do with all health related professions.
The practice of fraudulent nursing usually in order to make money or for ego gratification and power must be stopped. Yearly, quackery in nursing is in the increase. The numbers of individuals in the society who are willing to practice nursing fraudulently are increasing every day. This is a threat to the profession and a threat to human lives.
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It has a way of instigating confidence and irresistible courage in the minds of the practitioners as they engage in it. The common effects of quackery in nursing has irrevocably led to the following, increased maternal death, foetal death, acquired diseases and infections, mortality across all gender and population, false gratification, extortion from sick individuals, battery and violation of patients’ rights among others. As at March 2020 quackery in nursing increased by 20% including traditional birth attendants (TBA), junior community health extension workers (JCHEW), Community health extension workers (CHEW), some pharmacists, some chemists, some physiologists, some anatomists, and most endearing and endangering is the influx of minors (10-17years) in states like Delta, Cross rivers, Edo, Niger, Adamawa, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara etc. this is highhandedness, it is regrettably lugubrious and it is vile and inappropriate. Quackery is almost becoming an allowed thing in nursing and when I look around and see no significant measures put in place by NMCN and NANNM to checkmate the affairs of the nursing profession in elegant terms of quackery that among many reasons have warranted the need for this article.
The way forward in fighting this despicable snake and menace of quackery in nursing are thus stipulated below.
- NMCN/NANNM should set up a functional task force
The fight for quackery must be a situation of taking the bull by the horn. The more it increases in a profession the more that profession loses its professional relevance. The need for a dedicated, committed and functional task force must be taken into cognizance. This task force will be adequately armed with all necessary resources needed to fish out quackery activities in various states. This task force should have a zonal branch for each state and a national branch for all states where it will be easy for such members to reach the communities easily because observational research has shown that quackery in nursing has a high incidence and prevalence in rural areas (Danladi, 2020). Their activities will range from detecting quacks to destroying quackery facilities, institutions, gatherings and organizations.
- Established, highlighted and documented penalty for quackery in nursing
Where there are no laws everyone behaves anyhow. Without a definite pattern of jurisdiction and effectual punishment regulations for offenders (quacks) quackery will never stop. This punishment act should be made public and general. Let people be aware of the penalty involved in practicing such fraudulent acts.
- All nurses should begin private and public Campaigns against quackery in their respective capacities including the use of mass media (TV, radio etc), even the use of dramas, graffiti, and social media write ups.
- Lastly nurses should choose to be different because it has been discovered that some nurses are part of training the said quacks e.g. auxiliary nurses and others, a registered nurse with a chemist employs an individual to learn how to sell drugs and teaches the person how to give injection and the person goes out establish his/her shop like that and the circle continues like that or the person may be employed as an auxiliary nurse which is a defined act of quackery.
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As I conclude, I want to debunk the idea of auxiliary nursing because auxiliary nursing is a dignified quackery in the nursing profession and must be stopped and reported. Quackery will only end if we can adopt these solutions above and more. Nollywood also has a way of encouraging quackery in their misrepresentation of nurses in movies. It is high time that NANNM also take a serious legal action against the Nigerian nollywood.
DANLADI AMINU R.N, BNSc
Abdullahi Suleiman a Certified Registered Nurse based in Nigeria, an Entrepreneur and Also a Blogger, passionate about Community Development and Cosmetic Nursing
