School of Health Information Management, National Ear Care Centre Kaduna

The School of Health Information Management (SHIM) is one of the training schools of the National Ear Care Centre, Kaduna, a federal specialist ear, nose and throat (ENT) hospital under the Federal Ministry of Health. The Centre is located at No. 3, Golf Course Road by Independence Way, Kaduna North, Kaduna State, and is the only specialist hospital in Nigeria for the diagnosis, treatment and research of ENT conditions.

Training at the Centre is organised through its College of Nursing Sciences and a residency programme, alongside the health information (medical records) discipline. The College offers a 12-month Post Basic Otorhinolaryngology Nursing programme for registered nurses, a four-week Primary Ear Care course for Community Health Officers, Assistant Community Health Extension Workers and community-based general nurses, a refresher course for ORL nurses, short ENT clinical experience courses for students of other health institutions, and a Train-the-Trainers programme run with Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM) and the World Health Organization. An Audiometric Technician diploma of two years is run in affiliation with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, with sponsorship from the Centre and CBM.

The Health Records Department supports patient-care documentation, filing and storage, data capture and retrieval, and records processing, and provides data for management decisions and for researchers. The department has encouraged staff to qualify as health information professionals, including through the Health Records Officers Registration Board of Nigeria's professional development programme.

Clinical departments include ENT surgery in head and neck, otology, rhinology and paediatric ORL; audiology and speech therapy; radiology with CT scanning; a medical laboratory with a molecular laboratory; pharmacy; and a 24-hour accident and emergency unit. The Centre has over 50 beds and more than 500 employees, and is approved by the National Health Insurance Scheme. Patients have come from across Nigeria and from neighbouring countries including Chad and Niger. Facilities for learners include air-conditioned classrooms, a library, an e-library, a 200-seat auditorium and a temporal bone dissection laboratory.