Abstract
A robust healthcare delivery system is the mainstay of every functional society, providing preventive and curative services to the people. The nurses’ ‘Japa’ syndrome has depleted the Nigerian workforce, exacerbated the shortage of talented, trained and experienced nurses and heightened the brain drain problem. Although huge remittances from diaspora nurses are a major boost to the Nigerian economy. This situation highlights the bittersweet nature of the nurses’ japa syndrome. This study examined the contributions of religious organizations to the training of nurses in Imo State, Nigeria, from 2016 to 2025. Cross-sectional descriptive research design was deployed. It employed a documentary data collection method. Permission was obtained from all the four colleges of nursing sciences owned by religious organizations in Imo State, requesting their admission and graduation lists from the year 2016 to 2025. Regression analysis was utilized to analyse the data. The findings of this study show clearly that religious organizations have contributed significantly toward the training of nurses in the study area. They have established Colleges of Nursing Sciences at Amaigbo, Emekuku, Mbano and Umulogho-Obowo, all in Imo State. These schools have trained 3,211 nurses from 2016 to 2025. They have impacted substantially towards human capacity development in the study area. The study recommended that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund should, as a matter of national interest, include religious organization-owned colleges of nursing sciences in their intervention projects, so as to enhance their capacities to train more nurses and solve the nurse shortage in Nigeria.
Keywords: Diaspora Nurses, Japa Syndrome, Nigerian Nurses, Nursing Colleges, Nursing Education, Religious Organizations.