William N-Lanjerborr Jalulah
25 June 2009
Bolgatanga — "AS a matter of policy, the professional training of the nurse is incomplete without a one-year mandatory practical orientation of the newly-qualified trainees," Dr. J. Koku Awoonor-Williams, Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has said.
Addressing 662 students drawn from five health training institutions across the region, the Regional Director explained that the selection, recruitment and training into health training institutions, was now tied to regional quota system, based on staff requirements, population needs, and to some extent, utilisation patterns.
Dr. Awoonor-Williams noted that the regions would benefit from this sort of arrangement, where recruitment would take into consideration, the synergy between where the vacancy existed and decentralised items (personal emoluments).
This way, no qualified candidate would want to stay unemployed, when vacancy existed in a particular region, or where their salaries had been lodged after being posted.
According to him, the current 'Newly-Qualified Staff Placement Policy' (regional quota system) sought to address the high spate of professionals refusing posting to deprived regions like the Upper East Region.
Dr. Awoonor-Williams was however pessimistic that the free choice of region in which to serve by candidates, and the uncontrolled timing of regional placement selection interviews, could derail the intended impact, if not promptly checked.
He disclosed that as a policy, the region admitted 70-80% students from the Upper East Region, and 20-30% from outside the region, to address the human resource need.
The Health Director encouraged district/municipal directors of health, district/municipal assemblies, to help attract trainees through sensitization programmes.
Having commended the Navrongo Community Health Training School, for being ranked among the top three nationwide for the past four years, Dr. Awoonor-Williams observed that the region was undoubtedly capable of being the best among the best, with improved teaching and learning conditions, and enforcement of student discipline.
Before administering the Matriculation Oath, the Deputy Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives Council of Ghana (N&MC), Mr. Felix Nyante, congratulated the matriculants, and told them that discipline was one of the core values of the N&MC.
He said it was important for them be self-disciplined, as this reflected the tendency to be professionally disciplined, noting that professional discipline was essential when dealing with patients, their families, and other health professionals, as well as their colleagues.
Mr. Nyante hinted that as the way forward to achieving academic excellence, the N&MC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, was paving the way for degree programmes at the post-basic level.
The Principal of the Bawku Presbyterian Nurses' Training College and President of the Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHET), Mr. James Yambour, regretted that since January this year, funds had not been released to any health training institution.
Other problems mentioned included inadequate service conditions for heads and tutors, inadequate residential accommodation facilities for tutors, unfair placement and remuneration for tutors due to lack of career structure for tutors, inadequate teaching/learning materials, and textbooks of current editions, among others.
Mr. Yambour recommended, for the consideration of the Health Minister, that as a matter of urgency, adequate funds should be released, else the second semester course work would be suspended, and the students asked to go home.
As a matter of urgency, the Health Minister should also establish separate and appropriate grade structure and salary levels, as well as lines of career progression for tutors in HTIs.
In a speech read for him by his deputy, the Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, said the funding of health education was an expensive endeavour that government alone could not shoulder.
He therefore called on parents, and Ghanaians, as a whole, to come in and help.
The matriculants were made up 155 from Bolgatanga Nurses' Training College, 183 from Bawku Presbyterian Nurses' Training College, 131 from Zuarungu Health Assistant Training School, 150 from Navrongo Community Health Nurses' Training School, and 43 from Bolgatanga Midwifery Training School
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