Mrs Laura Nel, Director, Global Community Impact Africa of Johnson & Johnson Global Health Foundation, has called for better attention to nurses and midwives in order to engender change in health-seeking behaviour.

Nel told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that for the country to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, the nurses and midwives must be trained on the areas of oncology nursing, mental health and midwifery.

“Nigeria achieving SDG3 will require proper training, deployment and retention in the areas of oncology nursing, mental health nursing and midwifery. This will help to address the gaps in oncology, mental health and midwifery education in Nigeria,” she said.

Nel said that the foundation and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in collaboration with the Medicaid Cancer Foundation and other stakeholders concluded a two-day workshop on developing roadmap to address these issues.

She said that the workshop was in the two geo-political zones of South West and North Central Nigeria.

“The workshop seeks to address the gaps in oncology nursing, mental health nursing and midwifery education in Nigeria. We will develop a roadmap to address improvements in nursing and midwifery,” she said

Nel said that the foundation believed in the expertise of their partners, adding that they are ready to facilitate the processes needed to enable the partners to function optimally.

She said that the foundation was constantly looking to understand and support the needs of health workers to help them perform at their best to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

“We are committed to working with local partners to create systems that support community-based health structures,” she said.

She called on the government and well spirited Nigerians to focus on investments in nursing and midwifery to achieve a better goal. (NAN)