The Department of Nursing Sciences was established by the Act of 2005 establising other Department in the University of Ilorin. This Acts came to force on the 16th December, 2010. The Department was first located at the Provost building, College of Health Sciences in mini-campus of the University and later relocated in March 2011 to its permanent site College of Health Sciences, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ilorin Oke-Oyi complex. The Department and the Bachelor of Nursing Sciences degree programme was coordinated by Dr. Tijani Abioye a Professor who assumed duty on the 9th September, 2011 alongside with other lecturers (Dr. Adelani T.W. & Mr. Imam A.A) in June 2011 to assist him in the running of the Department.
The Department started with ten (10) students in 2010/2011 academic session and subsequently admitted some member of students in the following academic years. Currently the Department has risen to five hundred level with a total number of thirty (30) students and proudly graduated four sets since its inception.
In 2012, there was a recruitment of eight academic staff to compliment the effort of the existing academic and non-academic staff. In addition to the existing academic staff, the Department also has four other Associate Professors from University of Swansea, United Kingdom under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the University Swansea and the University of Ilorin respectively, with the intention to establish an Institute of Nursing and Social Work in the University of Ilorin Nigeria. The department also has two other adjunct academic staff that come as visiting Professors in Nursing Sciences. In 2018, some academic staff were recruited to boost the Department and most importantly, for the proposed Post Graduate programme commence very soon.