Quackery in Nursing is a public health menace, especially in countries in Africa suffering from brain drain and weak and porous healthcare systems.
A “quack nurse” is an individual who lacks the necessary qualifications and is not recognised by the governing professional body to practice nursing in any capacity.
Quack nurses in Nigeria, better known as auxilliary nurses, are individuals who, unfortunately, are trained by qualified healthcare professionals to work in private hospitals, clinics and pharmacies as a form of cheap labour.
Most people confuse auxiliary nurses with unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs) in developed countries, who only provide basic assistive care, like helping older people at home with activities of daily living, helping with errands in the hospitals, bathing patients, and doing other things to assist nurses and other healthcare professionals.
However, here in Nigeria, these quacks perform not only these basic assistive duties (and in some settings, they are used as cleaners and storekeepers) but also practice as registered nurses, giving medications, starting infusions, setting intravenous lines, dressing wounds, and, in some places, even assisting in surgeries and standing in as doctors, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists.
Quacks are typically individuals who have recently completed their secondary education or did not complete their education in a healthcare or medical course.
They may also have obtained degrees in related or unrelated fields at the university level.
These individuals often lack the necessary legal qualifications and training to practice medicine or provide healthcare services. They are poached by qualified healthcare professionals and trained for periods between three months to a year.
People who may not understand the danger of utilising the services of quacks tend to argue that quacks are a cheap form of medical or healthcare labour.
One wouldn’t blame them, as there seems to be a general lack of concern among people in Africa about the activities of quacks.
The lack of adequate research addressing the effects and activities of nursing and medical quackery in developing countries like Nigeria also contributes to the ignorance of the general public.
To contribute to addressing this widespread problem in Nigeria, the Institute of Nursing Research, Nigeria, has partnered with The Nursing Conception Initiative to offer a research grant to a nurse researcher to study the effect of quackery in nursing in the southwestern part of Nigeria.
Find out more at the official website of The Institute of Nursing Research, Nigeria.
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