The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) has said no fewer than 21,000 nurses were produced in the past six years in the country.
Alhaji Farouk U. Abubakar, the secretary-general and registrar of the council, made this known during the inauguration of the Collegiate System in Delta State Schools of Nursing by the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, at the College of Nursing, Agbor.
He noted that the domestication of the community-nursing programme in most states in the country had contributed immensely to primary healthcare services delivery.
In his address, Okowa opined that Nigeria had the capacity to export medical officers to needy nations if available potential were adequately harnessed and proper planning done.
Okowa urged the federal government to sign bilateral agreements with foreign nations to train and export more of the professionals rather than contemplate restricting medical practitioners from moving out of the country.
The governor urged all medical workers to adhere to the ethics of their profession by ensuring that they put in their best to render assistance to patients by showing them love at all times. He said Nigeria had the challenge of nurses, midwives and doctors exiting the country, pointing out that the situation had begun to trouble the healthcare system in the country.