Prof. Idongesit Ibanga Akpabio

MBBS (Sydney), FRACS (Paediatric Surgery)

Professor Idongesit Ibanga Akpabio, JP, FWACN is a Professor of Community Health Nursing and works at the Department of Nursing Science, University of Calabar. She holds PhD and M.Sc. degrees in Nursing obtained from University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2006 and 2000 respectively. She also holds MPA degree from University of Calabar (1995), B.Sc. degree in Nursing obtained from University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus in 1990 and other Professional Nursing Certificates including Registered Nurse (1997), Registered Midwife (1980) and Registered Public Health Nurse (1990). During her professional training years, she was often times rated the best among her peers and received many laurels for such recognitions. She is a member of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing (an International Nursing Organization, which offers members a worldwide variety of services to meet academic and professional career goals) and a Fellow of the West African College of Nursing. She joined the services of the University of Calabar in 1991 as a Senior Community Health Nursing Officer in the Health Services Department of the University. She was converted to the position of Graduate Assistant in the Nursing Programme that was then housed in the Department of Public Health in the University. She rose through the ranks and was promoted Professor of Community Health Nursing in 2016. Before joining the University, she served as Clinical Nurse in the then St Margaret Hospital, Calabar between 1978 and 1979, Nursing Officer in the Nigerian Ports Authority, Calabar (1980 and 1981), Nursing Officer in the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi between August, 1981 and January, 1991 and thereafter as Nurse Tutor in the School of Health Technology, Calabar between January and May, 1991. Her main areas of specialization include Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Health Education. Since joining the University, she has been teaching, researching, mentoring and contributing to the growth of the University. She is a very sound academic icon and has excellently lectured and supervised students’ research projects and clinical activities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for over a period of twenty-four years. She has attended many international and national conferences where she presented high quality papers from her research work. She has equally served as keynote speaker at several conferences and resource person for several nursing professional Workshops. She is a reviewer for many Journals both within and outside Nigeria. Professor Akpabio has successfully completed over thirty research projects and has over fifty Journal publications in both international and local peer reviewed Journals. She is similarly the principal among the two authors in a widely circulated text-book titled “Research Methodology and Statistics in Health and Behavioural Sciences” and the only author of “School-based HIV/AIDS’ Health Education: Concepts, Assumptions; Components and Curriculum’’ which was written as an offshoot of her Ph.D. thesis. Professor Akpabio is the current serving as Dean of the Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, where she has promoted several innovations to meet the quality assurance mandate of the University. She is a very versatile Academic icon who recently won the GOLD MEDAL PLUS Award of the National Universities Commission (NUC) for participation in the six reviews of NUC Accreditation Instruments. She served as the Deputy Dean of Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences from October 2016 to October 2018 when she was elected to become the Dean. She was the Acting Head of the Department of Nursing Science from March 2010 to March 2012. While in that position, she developed the proposal that led to the commencement of the Graduate Programme in Nursing of the University. She has equally served as Chairperson and member of several Committees in the University and, as a Professor, she is a permanent member of the Senate in the University of Calabar. She was a visiting Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana between March 2012 and March 2013; Team leader for several Nursing Council and NUC accreditation visits of programmes to many Departments of Nursing in Nigeria. She was a board member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria which is the Parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health and the only legal body for regulating the standards of Nursing and Midwifery Education and Practice in Nigeria. Her numerous other activities include serving in Curriculum Development Committees for the B.N.Sc. and Post-graduate Nursing programmes of many Universities, Faculty and Departmental Research Coordinator; Team leader for community mobilization and health promotion activities; External examiner for many Departments of Nursing in Nigeria; Research Consultant in the Continuing Education Programme for Clinical Nurses, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar; External Assessor for the promotion of Nurses to Professorial positions; Resource person for Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme in Cross River State, Nigeria; a member of the Committee for the development of the proposed Niger Delta University of Medical Sciences as well as taking charge of the training of School Health Nurses to enhance health education of pupils/students in primary and secondary schools using the curriculum she developed as an offshoot of her Ph.D. Thesis. Professor Akpabio has headed various health education teams on programmes for prevention of HIV/AIDS among youths and as an outreach programme using Women Fellowship Groups for prevention of HIV/AIDS and stigmatization of PLWHA, Screening for hypertension and health counselling for the elderly residents in Communities within Calabar, Cross River State. She is currently leading Community-based health providers and consumers’ collaborative Initiatives for health promotion at Edim-Otop in Calabar Municipality of Cross River State that started in 2014. She is a Principal Researcher in many ongoing research projects including Action Research on Health Providers and Consumers’ Collaborative Initiatives for Provision of Community-based Health Promotion Services; Evaluation of Community Health Nurses’ Opinions on relevance of Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme to their practice; Predictors of Health Promotion Practices among Nurses; Challenges and Opportunities for Pharmaco-vigilance in Nigeria; Nursing environment and its association with compliance to ethical care in a tertiary health facility in South-South Nigeria; Intra-professional Collaborative relationships between new graduate nurses and preceptors: Issues from internship programme; as well as Challenges associated with prevention of work-related conflicts among nurse leaders. .