Nurse
Health & Medicine
A nurse's day is built around patients. On a hospital ward you take temperature, blood pressure and pulse, give prescribed drugs and injections, set up and monitor drips, dress wounds, help patients who cannot bathe or move themselves, and write careful notes on each patient so the next shift knows what happened. In theatre, labour ward, accident and emergency or an intensive care unit the work is faster and more technical; in a primary health centre you may also immunise children, weigh babies, counsel mothers and run antenatal clinics. In Nigeria nurses work in federal teaching hospitals and federal medical centres, state general hospitals, primary health centres, private hospitals, company and school clinics, NGOs, and the military and police health services. Work is in shifts, including nights, weekends and public holidays, and wards are often busy with fewer nurses than patients need. It suits someone who is steady under pressure, physically able to be on their feet for hours, clean and orderly in their habits, and genuinely patient with frightened or difficult people. You need good Biology and English, a strong stomach, and the discipline to follow drug instructions exactly — in nursing a small carelessness can harm someone.
Exam requirements
Career pathway
WAEC/NECO credits including English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Both the university and the School of Nursing routes require credit passes in English, Mathematics and Biology, with Chemistry and Physics also needed for degree admission. Aim to pass all of these in one sitting, as some schools insist on that.
Choose your route: B.NSc degree or School of Nursing
The degree route is through JAMB UTME into a university offering Nursing Science (for example University of Ibadan, UNILAG, ABU Zaria, UNN, OAU). The other route is a Nursing and Midwifery Council accredited School of Nursing attached to a teaching or general hospital, which has its own entrance examination and interview.
Complete the nursing programme with clinical postings
5 years
The B.NSc is a five-year degree. The School of Nursing programme is shorter — commonly three years — but check the current structure with the school, because the Council has been converting these schools to degree-awarding programmes. Either way, a large part of the training is supervised work on real wards.
Pass the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria licensing examination
You cannot practise as a nurse in Nigeria without registering with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and passing its professional examination. Passing this gives you the Registered Nurse (RN) licence, which must be renewed periodically.
NYSC (degree holders)
1 year
Graduates of the B.NSc serve the one-year National Youth Service Corps, often posted to a hospital or health centre. Holders of the School of Nursing certificate alone are not called up for NYSC.
Specialise or add midwifery
After registering as a nurse many go on to Midwifery, or to post-basic specialities such as accident and emergency, paediatric, intensive care, perioperative or psychiatric nursing. A B.NSc also opens the way to an M.Sc and to teaching and administration.
Common challenges
Nursing admission is very competitive
DifficultBoth university Nursing Science and the accredited Schools of Nursing take far fewer students than apply, and cut-off marks for Nursing are among the highest in the health sciences.
How to handle: Treat JAMB and your WAEC science subjects as the real contest and start early, not in the exam year. Apply to a School of Nursing entrance exam the same year you sit JAMB so you have two chances instead of one, and look at the less-crowded state schools of nursing, not only the famous teaching hospitals. If you miss out, Nursing is one of the courses people successfully re-apply for the next year — a gap year spent preparing is not a wasted year.
Shift work, night duty and physical strain
ModerateNurses work in rotating shifts including nights, weekends and festive periods, often standing for most of the shift and lifting or turning patients on understaffed wards.
How to handle: Build the habits now: regular sleep, basic fitness, and the discipline to be somewhere on time. During your clinical postings pay attention to how senior nurses pace themselves, hand over and protect their rest days — that is learnable. Be honest with yourself before you start: if you cannot stand the sight of blood or the smell of a dressing being changed, find that out in SS2 by visiting a hospital, not after five years of training.
Emotional weight of patients who do not survive
DifficultNurses are present when patients die, including children and mothers, and sometimes when a family cannot afford the treatment that would have helped. This affects people, and it is rarely talked about openly.
How to handle: Expect it and do not treat feeling it as weakness. Keep one or two colleagues from your set you can talk to honestly, and talk to the senior nurses on your ward — they have carried it longer than you. Keep something in your life outside the hospital: church or mosque, a sport, family. If you find you are not sleeping or have become numb, say so to someone rather than carrying it quietly.
Pressure to travel abroad, and what it costs
ModerateMany Nigerian nurses leave for the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, so wards lose experienced staff and younger nurses feel pushed to follow before they are ready. The verification and licensing process is also expensive.
How to handle: Whatever you eventually decide, the thing that gives you choices is the same: a clean NMCN licence and solid post-registration experience in a busy Nigerian hospital. Get at least two years of real ward experience before thinking about leaving — foreign employers ask for it anyway, and it makes you useful at home too. Do not borrow heavily or pay an agent on a promise, and be careful of 'sponsorship' offers that ask for money upfront.
Difficult patients and relatives
ModerateNurses absorb the anger of frightened, pained patients and families, including people who blame nurses for delays, bills or doctors' decisions.
How to handle: Learn to explain simply and early — most anger on a Nigerian ward comes from people not knowing what is happening or how long it will take. Do not argue back in the moment; state what you can do, and call a senior nurse when someone becomes abusive. Build the habit of documenting what you did and when, because good notes protect you when a complaint is made.
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Key skills
Minimum qualification
Registered Nurse (RN) licence from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, earned through either a B.NSc degree or an accredited School of Nursing programme