Yes, Nigerian Army School of Nursing is admitting students for HND Nursing

Ganiyat Tijani-Adenle

Claim: A WhatsApp poster claims the Nigerian Army School of Nursing is receiving applications for admission into its HND Nursing programme.

This call for applications is genuine. The government has approved the HND Nursing programme in Monotechnics.

Full Text

Dubawa received a poster allegedly from the Nigerian Army School of Nursing, Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria, requesting applications for admission from para-military personnel and civilians into its ND/HND Nursing Programme.

What is common knowledge is for citizens to study nursing in Schools of Nursing, receive the Certificate in Basic Nursing (which qualifies them to take the Registered Nurse Professional Certification examination) and become Registered Nurses (RN) thereafter. Some universities in Nigeria have also commenced the B.Sc Degree programme in Nursing a few years back. Most Nigerians are however not familiar with ND/HND degree programmes in Nursing.

This explains why some WhatsApp users expressed doubts about the authenticity of the call for applications.

Nigerians are bombarded daily with fake calls for higher education and/or scholarships into higher education, and it is therefore understandable if they are worried about a programme that is not common knowledge.

Verification

Dubawa searched online for the website of the Nigerian Army School of Nursing in Lagos but could not find any links. What Dubawa found were several other education websites which had shared the Nigerian Army School of Nursing’s 2021 Call for Applications.

Dubawa then placed calls to the four mobile lines on the application poster and after several trials, an individual picked the call placed to 07063374043. A man answered the line and explained that the call for application is genuine.

The army officer, who demanded not to be identified due to service rules explained that “the Nigerian government had reformed nursing education in Nigeria in collaboration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)”. He said citizens can now earn degrees in Nursing through Universities (B.Sc Nursing) and Monotechnics (ND/HND Nursing). “Students who study nursing in Monotechnics will write two professional examinations organised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to undertake their Registered Nurse Professional Certification (RN) and the Registered Midwife Professional Certification (RM)”, he explained.

He stated further that the HND “is a straight four year course, the first two years is ND while the last two years is the HND, and the HND is compulsory. They can’t just walk away after the ND”. They will also do a one year attachment before proceeding for NYSC.

The Army Officer who insisted on being anonymous said the Nigerian Army School of Nursing is currently working on its website and hopes to have it up for Nigerians soon.

A Nigerian parent, Mr. Dahiru Garba, also confirmed to Dubawa that his daughter is undertaking her HND programme in Nursing in the College of Nursing, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi State and that the HND programme in Nursing is genuine and has been approved by the government. He also told Dubawa that “the Nursing and Midwifery Council is proposing to phase out the Certificate in Basic Nursing programme in 2023 and Nigerians can only do the ND/HND degree or the B.Sc degree programmes in nursing because there are issues with placing holders of the Certificate in Basic Nursing qualification in the civil service”.

Nigerian Army School of Nursing, Lagos was approved in 2018 (alongside 265 other approved institutions) for the training of nurses in Nigeria by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) as well as by the National Board of Technical Education. 

Conclusion

The Nigerian government approved the HND degree programme in Nursing, to be offered by monotechnics in the country in 2016 under a collaboration between the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (N&MCN). The current call for applications for admission by the Nigerian Army School of Nursing is genuine.

The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.