Mr. Agyeman-Manu (inset) addressing the Nurses and Midwives. Photo: Victor A. Buxton
About 5,597 newly qualified nurses and midwives in the Southern Zone A sector of the country were inducted into the profession at a ceremony in Accra yesterday.
The zone comprises of institutions in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta regions.
The number was part of the total number of 22,000 expected to be inducted across the country by the end of this year.
The nurses inducted included registered general nurses, registered community nurses, nurse assistants (clinical and preventive), registered mental nurses and midwives.
Speaking at the ceremony yesterday, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, lamented the few specialised nurses and midwives across the country.
This, he observed, had made it difficult to provide quality healthcare to all persons who needed specialised care, indicating the need to have more preventive and specialised nurses in the country.
The Minister hoped that ongoing reforms in the sector would lead to increase in trained specialists to bridge the human resource gap in healthcare delivery.
He mentioned that the health sector would leverage on efforts by government to digitise the economy through improving infrastructure in the field of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) to maintain highest standards in the profession.
In that light, Mr Agyeman-Manu said that Ghana had become the first country on the West Africa sub-region to conduct the online licensing examination for the nursing and midwifery candidates, which he described processes as efficient, effective and credible.
“The Ministry of Health with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Ghana Health Service and other health partners are making strenuous efforts to provide the people of Ghana with well trained and qualified nurses and midwives to offer prompt and efficient healthcare services,” he assured.
The Minister urged the newly qualified nurses and midwives to be innovative and continuously search for knowledge in order not to remain stale in the profession.
The acting Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Lydia Aziato, asked the newly qualified nurses and midwives to remember the oath and pledge they took in the discharge of their duties.
She also encouraged them not to leave the profession for ‘greener pastures’ but consistently upgrade themselves to attain higher heights.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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