The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association(GRNMA) has entreated the Youth Employment Agency(YEA) to halt the attempt to train and recruit Senior High School(SHS) graduates to assist nurses at the Community Health Planning and Services(CHPS) compounds.
According to the group, over 10,000 trained nurses and midwives have accessed the Ministry of Health recruitment portal but are yet to be employed.
This was contained in a statement signed by Mrs. Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, the President of GRNMA, released on Monday, 22 August 2022.
It stated that more than half of these nurses were trained to occupy roles required at the CHPS compounds.
“We wish to emphasize that more than half of this number are Nurse Assistants (Preventive) who are also appointed as Community Health Nurses(CHNs). In total, there is a backlog of over 20,000 nurses and midwives of all cadres belonging to 2019, 2020, and 2021 batches also awaiting employment.”
The association stressed that the work at these facilities, especially in the rural areas, is daunting and CHNs need assistance from qualified persons.
“Recording of medical history and symptoms, conducting physical examination, and providing bedside care requires special skills which can only be provided by trained health personnel and in this case CHNs who have gone through a regulated training by the Nursing and Midwifery Council(NMC) of Ghana in order to provide safe and quality health services to the people of Ghana,” the statement stated.
They, therefore, called on the government to recruit the thousands of nurses and midwives waiting to be employed with urgency.
GRNMA also described the move by YEA as disturbing as it “does not conform to standards set out by the NMC and will pose a threat to the lives of all Ghanaians, especially those in our rural communities whose first point of access to health care and in some cases the only access to health services are the CHPS compounds.”
The group called on every nurse and midwife not to commit themselves in any way to the training of any SHS graduates who are not to go through any of the standardized training as stipulated by the NMC of Ghana.
The YEA announced on Wednesday, 17 August 2022 that it would employ 5,000 Senior High School (SHS) graduates by the end of August 2022 to help with basic health care delivery on CHPS compounds across the country.
Alhaji Ibrahim Bashiru, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Operations, YEA, made the announcement during the launch of the 2022 Ghana Job Fair.
He said the SHS graduates would help nurses with services, including recording medical history and symptoms, conducting physical examinations, and providing simple bedside care to patients, mostly in rural communities.