CONSIDER EXPERIENCE NOT 'PAPERS' , HEALTH DIRECTOR TELLS GHS

The Ashanti Regional Director of Health, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifuba, has charged the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, GCNM, to closely work with the Council for Nurses and Midwives to streamline and also set standards for the nursing and midwifery profession. 

According to the Regional Director of Health, it is inappropriate for the Ghana Health Service, and for that matter government, to place premium on paper qualification at the expense of practical work experience which is the current situation in the system. 

He expressed regret that fresh nurse and midwife graduates with degrees are placed higher in ranks and, in some cases, made supervisors of the much more experienced professionals at the detriment of quality care. 

Dr. Nang-Beifuba made the observation in Kumasi at the closing ceremony of a 10-day training workshop for 17 tutors selected from government health training institutions across the country. 

The training programme, which was composed of both theory and hands-on practicals, was organized by the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives.

 It was the third in the series of the Basic Emergency Obstetric and New Born Care Skills. 

The participants learnt new experiences in areas such as global and local trends in maternal and neonatal mortality, repair of tears, global standards in midwifery, abnormal labour, women psychological wellbeing among other contemporary health topics.

 Dr. Nang-Beifubah noted that even though Ghana may not be able to achieve all the health targets in the Millennium Development Goals, the country has made appreciable progress saying that seven out of the country’s 10 administrative regions have made significant progress in those areas. 

He urged nurses and midwives who form about 60 percent of the entire workforce in the health service, to influence government policies and programmes relating to health care. 

The President of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Dr. Mrs. Jemima Dennis-Antwi, disclosed that Ghana has achieved a 70 percent target in skilled attendant in maternal care.

 She said recent study has revealed that the country’s delivery ratio stands at 150 per every 100 thousand births as against the 158 per 100 thousand live birth target.

 This, she noted, is satisfactory but called for more pragmatic and proactive policies towards addressing maternal and child health in the country right from the community level. 

It is in this direction that the GCNM aims to train 90 tutors and preceptors at the public nursing and midwifery training schools in new trends in their profession for them inturn, to impart the relevant theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in their trainees before they pass out. 

The participants were given certificates at the end of the 10-day training.