By Desire Uzochukwua
Nexa Nurses, a Nigeria-based digital healthcare company, has unveiled a mobile application designed to connect patients with qualified nurses and make professional healthcare services more accessible outside conventional hospital settings.
The platform, unveiled at a healthcare summit in Ikeja, Lagos, is aimed particularly at patients who require home-based care, including routine injections and other services that do not necessarily require a hospital visit.
Chief Technical Officer/Chief Operating Officer of Nexa Nurses, Mr. Collins Nwude, said the initiative was developed to formalise the growing demand for home healthcare while ensuring that patients receive care from qualified and registered nurses.
“Home healthcare has been happening informally, but we want to formalise the process by connecting patients with qualified, registered nurses rather than auxiliary nurses,” Nwude said.
He described Nexa Nurses as “a digital healthcare platform in Nigeria on a mission to make quality, professional healthcare more accessible, convenient and reliable for Nigerians.”
According to him, the long-term goal is to transform the way healthcare is accessed and delivered across Africa by using technology to connect patients with trusted healthcare professionals.
The Nexa Nurses mobile application is scheduled for official launch on September 7 and will be available on both the Google Play Store and iOS platforms.
Nwude said security was a major consideration in the development of the platform, explaining that the application has an SOS feature capable of tracking a nurse’s location and alerting the company in the event of an emergency or security threat.
He added that Nexa Nurses was planning to work with security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force, to strengthen the security framework around home-based healthcare services.
Delivering the keynote address at the summit, medical practitioner, Tunji Akintade, described the initiative as “a child of necessity”, given the shortage of healthcare workers and the difficulties many Nigerians face accessing hospital services.
“Nursing is an art mixed with science. To thrive in this profession, nurses must be thorough, ethical and empathetic,” Akintade said.
“As nurses, you are the eyes and ears of the doctor, but also the voice of the patients.”
Akintade said the COVID-19 pandemic had demonstrated that healthcare could be delivered remotely in appropriate circumstances, stressing that not every patient needed to travel to a hospital to receive care.
He cited patients placed on daily injections as an example, saying such services could be provided safely at home by qualified nurses within their communities.
“We have a lot of patients who have issues going to hospitals. They have been placed on daily injections for a period,” he said.
“But if you connect with Nexa Nurse, you can always get nurses in that neighbourhood to do the same thing without the patients clustering in the hospital environment.”
He said the platform would also create employment opportunities for qualified nurses who had completed their training but were unable to secure placements in government health facilities.
“Quite a lot of nurses are there. They are not even getting placements in the government. But if you give them this virtual opportunity, they will be gainfully employed,” Akintade said.
Beyond employment, he said the platform could improve access to care for elderly people and others who experience difficulties travelling to hospitals.
However, Akintade cautioned that the expansion of home-based nursing services must be accompanied by strong professional safeguards, including appropriate prescriptions, adherence to professional standards and proper digital documentation of services rendered.
He stressed that nurses without the requisite qualifications and knowledge should not be engaged through the platform, describing the initiative as an opportunity the healthcare profession should embrace responsibly.
The summit also featured a panel discussion involving six nursing professionals, who fielded questions from participants on the future of nursing, digital healthcare and opportunities for nurses in an increasingly technology-driven health system.
One of the speakers, mind coach Francis Adeshina, said the platform could provide healthcare professionals with an additional avenue to improve their income and achieve financial independence.
He described the digital model as an opportunity for nurses to leverage their professional skills beyond the traditional hospital environment while remaining connected to patients who need their services.
With Nigeria facing persistent shortages and uneven distribution of healthcare workers, the founders of Nexa Nurses believe technology-driven home healthcare could help take some pressure off hospitals while bringing professional care closer to patients’ doorsteps.
