Friday 12 February 2016

Nigeria Needs Over 100,000 Radiographers To Meet Medical Needs – ‎RRBN

A total of over 100,000 radiographers are needed in the country if the health and medical needs of over 170 million Nigerians are to be met maximally ‎as investigation has revealed that the current number is inefficient.
Also, to make the profession more attractive to Nigerians, especially undergraduates, a 5-man committee has been set up to review the radiography curriculum and proffer solutions which will encourage Nigerian universities to adopt the course as only six universities offer it at undergraduate level.
This was revealed by Mr. Michael Sunday Okpaleke of the Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria (RRBN) at the opening ceremony of the Post-Graduate Diploma in ultrasound course 2016/2017 session module 1 at the Asokoro District Hospital.
“Based on our statistics, we need one radiographer to about a thousand population. We have a population of about 170 million Nigerians and that means we need over 100,000 radiographers in the country if the needs of Nigerians are to be met.”
“The profession is attractive and there is no radiographer without a job. As they are graduating from school, they are getting employed. Infact they are appointed on Grade Level 10. So it is attractive but it is just because radiographers work with radiation which we all know that if not properly used can be harmful. The psyche of working in a radiation environment is what scares people and health hazard allowances are paid.‎”
“There is a need to improve on the curriculum of radiographers in order to meet up with global trends. To this effect, we have set up fellowship programmes and training and we have also mandated a 5-man panel‎ of experts to look at our curriculum and they reviewed. So the white paper is available and has been set to universities and other traditional institutions to ensure that the training of radiographers meets global standards and best practices. Radiography is technology dependent and it changes from time to time. It is dynamic.‎”
Okpeleke further stated that the role of radiographers in any health facility cannot be underestimated as they are needed in the detection of diseases with the aim of treatment and cure.
 “The contribution of radiographers is key and very important as there is no standard health facility that does not have a radiography or xray department‎ and when we talk about radiography, we are talking about diseases and their diagnosis with an aim of treating them.”
“We do have have enough radiographers in the country and that is why we are doing this training. Infact, we have only five- six universities studying the course in Nigeria. We are also approaching other universities to see if they can appreciate the training and follow suit.”

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