sitemaster Communiqué Issued At The End Of The First Annual Scientific Workshop/Annual General Meeting Of The Association Of Medical Laboratory Scientists Of Nigeria (AMLSN), National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom Chapter Held Between Monday, 29th August, To Friday, 2nd September, 2016 At The National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Plateau State
Introduction
The first Annual Scientific Conference/ Annual General Meeting of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom Chapter held between th 29th August to the 2nd September, 2016 with the theme: Hands-on Training on the use of Statistical Softwares in Research started with the arrival and registration of participants, followed by the installation of statistical packages on computers of registered participants. The workshop, which targeted at equipping scientists with practical knowledge on some statistical packages drew participants from far and wide, across the country irrespective of professional affiliations
The opening ceremony took place at the NVRI auditorium on Tuesday, 30th September with a Keynote Address titled ‘DATA IS THE HALLMARK OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH’ This was delivered by the Immediate Past Statistician General of Plateau state, Hon Pamson Dagyat. Participants settled down for technical sessions on application of Statgraphics and Epi info statistical softwares which though tasking, were really rewarding in the long run
Observations/Recommendations
- Conference commended the Management of NVRI Vom for granting approval and providing enabling environment for this maiden workshop to hold
- Conference appreciated the administrative disposition of the Ag Executive Director, NVRI Vom, Dr David Shamaki for carrying everyone along and hoped that this will continue
- Conference acknowledged that Nigeria is indeed facing serious economic challenges and called for the strengthening of National, State and Institutional Statistics Boards in view of the present economic recession in the country as no planning can ever be effective without proper research and competent statistical data generation, manipulation and interpretation
- Conference maintained that statistics is key to planning, research and development as such this form of training should go round all MDAs, teaching as well as research institutions to enhance productivity of members
- Conference observed with dismay that the gap in knowledge and application of statistical softwares among most researchers is big. This impedes the translation of information concealed in research data into revolutionary knowledge
- Conference berated the existing trend where scientists are fixated on manual processes of statistical manipulations, stressing that it is archaic, laborious, time wasting and error-proned, and challenged scientists to upgrade to new statistical paradigms
- Conference lamented the unyielding attitude of some scientists towards Continuous Professional Development, stressing that science is dynamic and has no room for redundancy in knowledge and skill upgrade.
- Conference noted that statistics is an everyday and every sphere affair with no profession bias and called on all to embrace the new approach for greater impact and productivity
- Conference described the state of data generation, processing and storage in most MDAs as appalling and called on Chief Executives to give this a look in and employ the right persons while ensuring training and retraining of workforce
- Conference informed that Medical Laboratory Scientists are by training health researchers as such institutions vested with the mandate of health services, training and research must seek to make the medical laboratory scientists the key players in that regard
- Conference noted that the health system in Nigeria is challenged by sporadic outbreaks of diseases; emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, this is occasioned by neglect of the sector, poor budgeting, infrastructural decay as well as shortage on manpower, and averred that with proper application of statistical tools, planning will be more efficient
- Conference noted that the wrongful advertisement of positions meant for Medical Laboratory Scientists as well as their wrongful placements in MDAs is a setback in health care delivery, research and development and called on Chief executives to insist on standards and treat all professional groups fairly and equally
- Conference advocated for the expansion of training curriculum of undergraduate and graduate students to accommodate skills on use of statistical softwares to enhance the quality of students research projects as well as position for a more productive career in research
- Conference called on developers of statistical softwares to make them more user-friendly and also do more in promoting them to the various communities of end users to ease their research processes
- Conference commended the management of research and health institutions in Plateau State and Nigeria as a whole for according Medical Laboratory Scientists the privilege of carrier progression as and at when due but called on them to ensure Medical Laboratory Scientists in the directorate cadre are given clear and specific job descriptions and portfolios, noting that this will strengthen the operations of the Directorate of Medical Laboratory Scientists in those institutions and enhance productivity
- Conference called on the general public to patronize only medical laboratories accredited by Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria and manned by certified medical laboratory scientists for diagnosis and be wary of hawkers of medical laboratory services in the market places and churches who parade about with computer gadgets, noting that these charlatans have no any formal training on health matters and are only out to flimflam unsuspecting populace
- Conference agreed that there was need for an annual research summit for all stakeholders in the health sector to take stock of research challenges and forge new paradigms in circumventing them in view of the peculiar challenges of the sector
Finally, it is our hope that these observations and recommendations be taken seriously
Long live Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria
Long live National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Solomon Chollom Tobias PP Choji
Chairman, AMLSN NVRI Vom Secretary, AMLSN, NVRI Vom
