Covid-19 is a virus that has created tension and devastation around the globe. This study is designed to specifically find out the effect of Covid-19 on the socioeconomic well-being of Nigerians, the health sector preparedness to handle the pandemic, and the role of Nigerian social workers in the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria. The study employed a phenomenological and exploratory research design in its inquiry. Sixteen respondents made up the sample size for the study. A Focus Group Discussion Guide and an In-Depth Interview Guide were the instruments for data collection. The result of the study shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the socioeconomic well-being of Nigerians. Second, the Nigerian health system is ill equipped and underprepared to handle the Covid-19 pandemic. Third, Nigerian social workers, most especially medical social workers, have played a significant role in passing out information on Covid-19 preventive measures to the general public. The study recommends that the Nigerian government should wake up and fix the health sector and make it proactive to handle epidemics/pandemics in the future. Social work practice in Nigeria should be promoted by the government through institutionalization of the profession.

Unlike in the global-north where care of hospital in-patients is within the remit of the nursing and social care staff, the burden of care in most Nigerian hospitals is borne by informal caregivers who are relatives, family members or friends of the in-patients. Their unpaid roles in ensuring health and wellbeing of in-patients cannot be overstated, yet they remain often invisible to and unappreciated by hospital authorities. We used in-depth interviews to glean lived experiences of 24 informal caregivers in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. This study adopted phenomenology as its overall theoretical underpinning that guided data collection and analysis. As also recommended by phenomenology, thematic clusters were employed for analysis. The narratives of the respondents revealed that caregiving constitutes a lot of ordeals which are worsened by some unwholesome conditions in the hospital for informal caregivers who seem to be left to fend for themselves. Three overarching themes emerged from the interviews which are, challenges of informal caregivers, conditions that exacerbate the challenges, and steps to improve coping capacities. Informal caregivers remain an essential force in the care of hospitalised patients yet are poorly attended to by healthcare authorities. There is a need to pay attention to their needs through a comprehensive health policy to accommodate them as a priority concern in the care of patients. Social workers can be meaningful in scaling up responses and response plans to that effect. Hence, the need to advance the professionalisation of social work in Nigeria deserves speedier attention.

No abstract

PurposeThe impact of COVID-19 on the educational systems across the globe was characterized by the shutdown of university education systems. In the post COVID-19 era, examining the prospect of on-line education becomes demanding with emphasis on promoting effective and uninterrupted university education sector in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed phenomenological and descriptive research design. The sample size for the study was 15, comprising university lecturers, students and school social workers. In-depth Interview (IDI) interview was the instrument for data collection.FindingsFindings revealed that university education in Nigeria was adversely disrupted by COVID-19 lockdown during the pandemic. Similarly, the study revealed that online education will facilitate effective and uninterrupted university education in post-COVID-19 era. Challenges such as lack of access to laptops, smartphones, reliable internet services, electricity etc. are major obstacles to an effective transition to online education in the post-COVID-19 University education era. The students lamented that poor knowledge of ICT by their lecturers and inclusivity of indigent/disabled students were major concerns.Originality/valueRevitalizing the education sector is a core concern for low-income countries. Online education presents the lasting solution to the constant interruption of university education in Africa. Promoting effective and uninterrupted university education is pegged on an adequate government education budgetary allocation targeted towards providing an enabling environment for online education to thrive. The study recommends that school social workers' engagement in the educational sector would help advocate for the availability of technological infrastructures and mainstreaming of the poor and disabled in the online education dispensation.

University age students widely engaged in using Social Media. Therefore, the social media is poised to affecting both their personal and academic lives. Thus, this study is designed to assess the relationship between the use of social media and academic performances, and it impact on the students of sociology/anthropology in university of Nigeria Nsukka. As quantitative approach was adapted to collect the relevant data of study, a number of 120 survey questionnaires were administered among the undergraduates in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology University of Nigeria Nsukka. Out of the three research hypotheses formulated to guide this study, the analysis invalidates the first two hypotheses while validating the last hypothesis. Thus, the students' academic performance is independent of their use of social media (p=0.808); the students' academic performance is also independent of the amount of time they spent on the internet (social media) (p=0.227) and the degree of use of social media by the students is positively related with their ages (p=0.000). The study therefore recommends that the university authority should educate the students on the need to use social media to enhance their academic performance.