The Lagos State University College ofMedicine(LASUCOM) has said that it intends to begin the training of more medical personnel to meet the government’s mandate of producing about 1,000 health workers yearly.
Provost of the College, Prof. Abiodun Adewuya, noted this on Thursday, during the induction ceremony for the fourth set of Bachelor of Nursing Science Graduates, LASUCOM, Ikeja, Lagos.
While commending the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration for revamping infrastructural facilities in Lagos State hospitals, Prof. Adewuya said: “What we need is to have more personnel to train. We already have the hospital infrastructure being revamped. All we need now is to have more medical personnel to train and to admit more people.”
On the efforts to fulfill the mandate of producing more health workers in the state, he said: “LASUCOM intends to expand its intake of more doctors, more nurses, more pharmacists, dentists, and others. The efforts that we are putting in are that we are expanding our infrastructure, and we want to ensure that we get more lecturers. We are getting more campuses, apart from the one here in LASUTH premises.
The government is trying to give us more campuses, so that we can use the infrastructures to produce more nurses, more doctors, and more dentists.”
According to the LASUCOM provost: “The infrastructures in the hospitals are not only meant for services. We want to also start using them for training of medics and health workers. The services are to take care of patients, but we don’t want to use them to take care of patients only, we also want to use them to train health workers.
“LASUCOM will not be the only teaching hospital in Lagos, there are going to be more teaching hospitals.”
Guest lecturer, Dr. Kemi Ogunyemi, Special Adviser to Lagos State Government on Health Matters, urged the graduands to make the best of their profession.
She said that despite the fact that the nursing profession is a challenging and rigorous one, the inductees should strive to achieve greatness wherever they find themselves.
Noting that the induction ceremony was a foundation to a fantastic career, Ogunyemi urged them to value themselves and make themselves valuable, be consistent in every good thing they do, as well as seek opportunities to learn.
Among others, Dr. Ogunyemi admonished the graduands to make themselves part of solutions to problems, specialize in specific fields of interest, collaborate to make the work easier and better, ask questions for better understanding, become strong advocates and ensure that they give quality care to patients.
She advised them to see the best in their country, as there are more nurses in some of the countries they are planning to migrate to for greener pastures.
While wishing the graduates the best in their future endeavours, Ogunyemi urged them to be unique and excellent nurses as they make themselves and Nigeria proud.
Chairperson of the event, Vice Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Adenike Boye, said that the event was a remarkable moment in the history of the school, which was to celebrate hard work and excellence.
She said that the event marked the beginning of a professional journey of excellence, advising them to have integrity and professionalism, commitment to excellence, which are the hallmarks of LASU.
