Association of General Private Nursing Practitioners of Nigeria organised 10th AGM/National Scientific Conference recently in Lokoja, Kogi State.

Speaking on the occasion, the President of the Association Nurse Balogun Ajiboye expressed his appreciation to God Almighty for his love and undeserved kindness for humans.

According to him, “Is it the Covid- 19 pandemic and its band wagon effect on all sphere of our life or the unconventional war in every corner of the country, Banditry, Kidnaping, Rape, Stray bullets etc. The effects of all these man-made catastrophes on health providers and users is humongous and if nothing is done now the already threatened universal health coverage and sustainable development goals in Nigeria will be a mirage. It is in the spirit of these we chose this year conference theme DOUBLE BURDENS OF INSECURITY AND HEALTH INSECURITY IN NIGEERIA: PRIVATE NURSE -PRACTITIONERS DILEMMA AND STRATEGIES FOR ACTION and we believe that our mother, an erudite scholar and a nurse per excellence Professor Omolola Irinoye and other scholars will do justice to the topic.”

In his words:

“Our vision is to promote good conduct, standard ethical professional practice among Nurses and midwives that are in private practice all over Nigeria and ensure that their business and professional interests are protected as long as they operate within the laws of Nigeria and provisions of this Constitution.

Our mission is to Build a virile, active and people-oriented professional body for Nurses and midwives in private practice that will be responsive to the legitimate needs of its members and at the same time be an active participant in Nigeria’s health delivery system particularly at the community level.”

Nurse Balogun who used the opportunity to list some of the Association’s giant strides also said, “We have rescued thousands of women and youths who could have died of simple obstetrics complications mostly at the community level.
 Millions of under 5 children had been immunized and treated for commonly occurring medical conditions.
 We have reduced unmet need for contraceptive through family planning services.
 We have saved millions of youths and adolescents through our robust youth and adolescent programme.
 We have screened thousands for HIV and refereed the positive ones to the appropriate place for treatment
 We are collaborating with TB and leprosy control for the screening and treatment of TB
 We submit data to the local government monthly
 Through the NGOS we had built hundreds of our members capacity on post abortion care, family planning, infection prevention and also sensitized them on professionalism.
 We have screened, treated, maintained and sustaining millions of Nigerians for non-communicable diseases.
 On daily basis we link primary healthcare to the secondary and tertiary centres through prompt referrers.
All these are done mainly at the community level including hard to reach areas.

Private Nursing and Midwifery practice is as old as conventional nursing in Nigeria. However, in 1968 an Association was formed under the name; Private Nurses Association (PNA). This association was embraced by both the Nurses and Midwives in autonomous practice, to reflect this, the assembly, in November, 1992 changed the name to Nigeria Private Nurses and Midwives Association (NPNMA). In order to create legal identity, the Association got duly registered with the Corporate Affair Commission [CAC] in April. 2009 as non-religious, nonpolitical, non-union but purely professional Association under the name, Association of General Private Nursing Practitioners of Nigeria [AGPNP]. As business arm of NANNM.
Memberships of the association are the professional Nurses and Midwives duly registered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and operating independent nursing practice. It also extends to the professional Nurses/Midwives employed by private clinical facilities, NGOS, and multinationals. Members contribute meaningfully to the delivery of primary health care services thus, complementing government activities at bringing accessible, affordable and available health care to the door steps of the Nigerian both in the rural and urban areas. Services rendered by our members include and not limited to preventive, curative and supportive health care independently at the primary care level and bridging gap between primary and secondary level through referrers.
As an Association, we collaborate with Health Care Provider Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), Health federation of Nigeria [HFN], some health-related NGOs, government at all levels and the international organizations. AGPNP is a member of the Nigeria network of NGOs (NNNGO