Fellow Nurses Africa | Nairobi, Kenya | 10 July, 2025
Kenya’s Nursing Internship Crisis: Why Trained Nurses Are Trapped and How to Fix It
“We graduated, we passed, we waited — but the system failed us.”
Hundreds of nursing graduates in Kenya are caught in a heartbreaking limbo, unable to practice despite completing their training and passing required exams. Over 400 Kenyan nursing graduates remain stranded without internship placements, a mandatory step for professional nursing licensure. This nursing internship crisis is not just a personal tragedy for these graduates—it’s a systemic failure threatening Kenya’s healthcare system.
The Harsh Reality for Kenya’s Nursing Graduates
Since 2019 and 2020, many nursing graduates have been waiting for internship placements that never materialize. While younger cohorts are often prioritized, these graduates are left in limbo, making repeated trips to the Ministry of Health offices, only to face administrative chaos: duplicated names on lists, missing graduation records, and poor communication between universities and the Nursing Council of Kenya.
“Our lives have been stagnant since 2023. We cannot apply for jobs because we are not licensed,” says Nashipai Joyline Sulunye, a pre-intern nursing officer.
Worse still, some graduates watch helplessly as their junior colleagues secure placements, fueling suspicions of favoritism or bureaucratic mismanagement. This isn’t just about delayed careers—it’s about wasted human capital in a country grappling with nurse shortages and a strained healthcare system.
A Continent-Wide Nursing Crisis
Kenya’s nursing internship crisis is not unique. Across Africa, including Nigeria, newly trained nurses face similar challenges. In Nigeria, limited internship slots, underfunded hospitals, and disorganized posting systems leave hundreds of nursing graduates waiting months or even years for placement letters.
Hospitals, often overwhelmed or underfunded, lack the capacity or budget to accommodate interns. Yet, licensing boards like the Nursing Council require internship experience for full registration, trapping graduates in a vicious cycle:
“You can’t get a license without an internship. You can’t get a job without a license. It’s a cruel cycle that keeps us jobless,” says a Nigerian nursing graduate.
This broken system doesn’t just harm graduates—it deprives patients of care. Africa faces a critical shortage of healthcare workers, yet trained professionals are sidelined, unable to contribute to healthcare delivery.
The Devastating Costs of Inaction
The nursing internship crisis has far-reaching consequences:
- Qualified nurses remain unemployed, waiting years to practice.
- Many abandon nursing entirely, exacerbating nurse shortages.
- Healthcare systems, already strained by disease outbreaks, maternal mortality, and non-communicable diseases, lose vital capacity.
- Frustrated graduates consider migrating abroad, worsening Africa’s healthcare brain drain.
When nursing graduates say they feel forgotten, they’re highlighting a healthcare system teetering on the edge.
Solutions to Fix the Nursing Internship Crisis
To address this crisis, African governments, including Kenya’s, must act decisively:
- Transparent Internship Processes: Implement fair and timely internship placement systems to eliminate favoritism and errors.
- Increased Funding: Allocate budgets for internship stipends and more training slots in hospitals.
- Better Coordination: Streamline communication between universities, the Nursing Council of Kenya, and the Ministry of Health to resolve administrative bottlenecks.
- Prioritize Internships: Recognize internships as essential bridges to the nursing workforce, not optional extras.
- Invest in Workforce Development: Address healthcare workforce gaps to strengthen universal health coverage goals.
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A Call to Action for Kenya’s Healthcare Future
African health ministries, including Kenya’s, must move beyond slogans about universal health coverage and invest in the healthcare workforce. Every qualified nurse deserves a clear path to practice. A nurse without a placement isn’t just a wasted opportunity—it’s a patient who may never receive care.
By addressing the nursing internship crisis, Kenya and other African nations can unlock the potential of their trained professionals, strengthen healthcare systems, and ensure better outcomes for patients.
- Fellow Nurses Africa is the independent voice of African nursing, we educate, inform and support the nursing profession.*
