Mercy A.

Aspiring Health Researcher | RN BSN | Wife and Mom

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@rundriveng My experience:

I started my degree journey 2yrs after nursing school with Lautech ODL, now I'm on a scholarship for my masters here in the UK. My degree opened that door.
.
I have never liked the idea of doing a post basic, I prefer doing a specialty on a master's or PhD level.

[Catherine Olatunji @Catherineolat]

Every time this MP speaks on healthcare, it’s the same pattern- blame immigrants!

So let’s start with the basics.

1. No foreign nurse “barely speaking English” can work in the NHS. To even begin the process, you must pass IELTS/OET with some of the highest language standards in the world, sit the UK’s own CBT exam, verify your licence from your home country, and still pass the OSCE after arrival.

These are your rules and we meet them.

If after all that you still think immigrants “can’t speak English,” then the issue is not competence, it’s the bias in your mind.
Raise the requirement to IELTS 8.5 if you like; people will still meet it, and you still won’t consider them “good enough” because the problem is not the score, it’s your perception.

2. You called foreign staff “potentially unqualified and incapable.” Based on what?

Where is the data?

Immigrants make up a massive percentage of the NHS workforce. If we were “incapable,” the outcomes, mortality rates, and safety records would show it but they don’t.

What you have is not a fact, it's just a convenient political narrative.

3. You asked why the UK “relies on foreign labour,” The answer is simple - it is cheap labour.

Every visa category requires a minimum salary of £ 41,000, except for the Health and Care visa, which is set at around £25k.

For a registered professional with people’s lives in their hands, in this economy, that is exploitation, not generosity.

British doctors are striking.
British nurses are leaving.
British student midwives are graduating into unemployment. And instead of addressing poor pay, unsafe staffing, and a system everyone is running away from, you turn immigrants into the scapegoats.

4. You also speak as if UK-trained staff are automatically superior. Let’s be honest. Even the three- or four-year nursing route or UK two-year fast-track nursing programmes, nurse associate routes, and the watered-down training pathways cannot be compared to the depth, rigour, and technical foundation of Nigerian nursing education.

I can only speak for Nigeria because that’s the system I trained in. Five years of university-level nursing science, one year of internship, and one year of national service. Strong anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, community health, and clinical practice. Nigerians go through hell and high water to qualify.

To have someone call such people “unqualified” is absolute nonsense!

And this is exactly why your rhetoric is dangerous. You refuse to acknowledge how much immigrant nurses actually contribute. You refuse to admit the NHS would collapse without them.

You refuse to face the fact that the real problem is your government starving the system of funding, good pay, and proper workforce planning.

Instead, you attack the very people keeping your health service alive.

The real issues are unsafe staffing, chronically underfunded hospitals, pay that cannot match the cost of living, outdated workforce planning, and policies that make healthcare unattractive to the very British workers you claim are being pushed aside.

But instead of addressing any of that, you always attack the people who keep the system running.

And yes, honourable MP, calling this out is addressing racism. When you imply an entire group of people is inherently less competent or less capable despite passing the exact standards your own institutions created, that is prejudice.

If you wanted a conversation about improving standards, we could have one. But this generalised, sweeping condemnation of foreign staff is not healthcare reform, it’s political theatre. Stop the theatrics please.

Immigrants didn’t break the NHS.
We are the reason it’s still standing.

@BBCNews @SkyNews kindly help me inform your MP in case he does not see this.

Thank you.

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@ScholarshipfPhd Hi

[Catherine Olatunji @Catherineolat]

They’re tone-deaf in everything.

It’s not just lawyers, it’s every professional field.

Since 2017, I’ve personally reached out to the Actors Guild President, @emekarollas1.

2020, The Nursing Group Admin reached out to the Yoruba guild (TAMPAN) led by Baba Latin. I travelled from Ibadan to Abeokuta with a team of nurses just to offer free guidance on health-related roles.

@jayjayprof even organised several media–nursing collaboration summits with many of them in Nollywood.

We offered to help them get medical scenes right, for free, at no cost but nothing changed.

Then you watch A Lagos Love Story on Netflix this year and see @JemimaOsunde drag an oxygen cylinder and give a talking, stable man a non-rebreather mask for no reason — not even a nasal cannula.

No distress, no struggle. He was coherent and clear. No use of accessory breathing muscles or any visible indication. It was just nonsense on screen. I screamed when I saw that.

To me, it’s not about perfection, it’s about paying attention to the little details.

These things, no matter how “insignificant,” shape public perception. They make it look like Nigerians are medically illiterate or unserious.

Anyways, Nollywood keeps choosing ignorance or should I say mediocrity over improvement.

We’ve tried. I’ve tried.
And I don't think they will ever listen.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Can you catch a cold by being cold?

[📹 dr. cal. ur. science.pal]

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

#HealthResearcher

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@Nigerian_Doctor 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@ThankGodIG Cold juice

[The Male Nurse ™️ @KelvinOssai]

A few days ago, I made a tweet on why I'd not advise anyone to study nursing in Nigeria, and I gave my reasons. My opinion may change in the future, but for now, this is my standpoint, and I'll explain further.

As someone who has been through several walls of nursing programs in Nigeria and has been practising since 2013, here are a few things you need to know.

1. Some nursing schools are run by some hospitals and mission institutions. The experience the nursing students receive from there ranges from being flogged to being told to wash toilets, cut grass or sweep the gutters, and even kneel down. I kid you not. This experience is enough to make even an intelligent nurse to be unable to speak out for themselves, talk more of advocating for patients.

2. Some accommodations that the nursing students live in are usually worse than where animals are kept. I have seen horrible pictures and tales from students in these programs.

3. Everyone is out to extort the student nurse because in their mind, if you finish, you dey go abroad. This happened to me and my set. With every slightest thing, we are asked to pay. When we speak up, we are told ehn because you go soon go abroad. This is why you pay for everything, including for supposedly council-paid examiners who are coming to invigilate your exams (you pay their transport, accommodation, feeding, and other expenses). Why are the students made to bear the brunts.

4. I mentioned that you pay for everything. This includes exams upon exams and projects upon projects. You pay to be indexed. You pay for hospital finals (an exam to show that you're prepared for the council exam), and you pay for the council exam. And many more.

5. Any error on your nursing license will take the grace of God and even the plead from the devil for this to be rectified. To date, some of my colleagues are struggling to do any nursing practice abroad because NMCN made mistakes in their date of birth (something they can easily fix, but they won't).

6. Everything with the council is almost as hard as a thread through the eye of a donkey (I dunno the parable sef, but you get). There is a back door here and there. No customer care to answer your queries or solve your problems. Currently, it has been said that despite the paused verification, people are still doing this backdoor!!

7. During community postings, students have to contribute money for fuel and car maintenance, etc. I mean, all these expenses are outside the school fees.

Despite these, nursing Nigeria is still one of the best in the world, and the curriculum is at par with that of the USA, Canada, Australia, and most developed worlds. However, once you become a Nigerian registered nurse, the verification issues and negative health and government policies will keep affecting you no matter where you go on life. So my dear, if you don't have plans of practicing in Nigeria at all and you have the resources, there is no point studying putting yourself inside this dark cycle that u'll never be able to come out from

I am a nurse who graduated from Nigeria practising abroad. But I'll keep renewing my nursing license in Nigeria, looking for verification every time I need that. But if u do this in a developed country, u don't need all that stress. NMC UK takes only 2 minutes or less to verify that you're a nurse on the register - u fill a form on ur profile, once u click submit, the orhanization grid the email that you're good to go

I will be posting some opportunities in the near future for nurses who have licenses but are looking for opportunities abroad, and non nurses who have degrees in any field but want to switch to nursing

Next time, I'll tell you about how nursing refuses to allow students who failed the council exam thrice from EVER taking the council exam (meaning all the years of schooling and all the above mentioned, have been wasted).

SHARE❤️ (pardon my typos)
Follow @KelvinOssai to stay informed. Follow @alphaieltsgurus for IELTS

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@It_Chioma In plastic? Why??

[Princewill Aghedo @aghedoprincewi4]

The front page of NMCN verification portal

#EndNursingVerificationSuspension

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@aghedoprincewi4 I don't understand why "statistics" should halt verification.

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@InternetH0F Probably the only one

[Mercy A. @_akinmercy]

@DAMIADENUGA

[The Male Nurse ™️ @KelvinOssai]

A group of concerned nurses has taken legal action against the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) today, February 23, 2024. This comes amidst of the recent verification circular released by NMCN. The group is demanding total withdrawal of the circular.

Set a reminder for my upcoming Space! Today 8pm naija time https://t.co/bXmuOBBvJ5 #notonmcnverificationrule

[Owolabi Ayodeji (Ayanfe The Media Nurse🎙️📽️🎤) @MediaNurse_]

NANNM can't call for strike when the nurses they represent are being treated badly, but they are quick to join NLC strike.

Now you can all see what matters to your leaders...

#Notonmcnverificationrules

[DANI @DANInitiatives_]

The assumption that over 212,153 Registered Nurses currently working in Nigeria are earning averagely above N100, 000 is grossly misleading triggered to campaign for "public health best in interest".
@Fmohnigeria @Nigeria_NMC @NGRSenate @muhammadpate @DrTunjiAlausa

[The pixelRN @themaxwalter]

The @Nursingworld_Ng has recently posted a misleading tweet that’s currently making waves about Nr. Josiah Okesola’s interview on @ARISEtv.

Here’s a part of the clip they didn’t show you and here’s a link to the Full interview:

https://t.co/B4f2GFbuew

[The pixelRN @themaxwalter]

For the sake of those who’d be wrongly mislead, please kindly RETWEET this before the man gets bashed online for no reason!!

The link to the Full interview

https://t.co/B4f2GFbuew

[Nursingworld Community 💙 @Nursingworld_Ng]

Well said @legitMaleNurse