Strengthening nursing and midwifery education is essential to improving the quality of health services in Ghana, the Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has said.
That he said, would also ensure that nurses and midwives were empowered and their roles developed to enable them play a major part in spreading Universal Health Coverage (UHC) rapidly, cost-efficiently and to a high level of quality.
The minister made these remarks at the Seventh Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Fourth Seminar of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (GCNM) held at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region on Tuesday.
“Nurses and midwives must be trained and educated to conduct relevant research and translate research findings into practice to promote best practices and improve health outcomes,” he stated.
He added that, the critical role of nurses and midwives as committed healthcare providers with a broad range of responsibilities and contributions to the realisation of valuable healthcare had been acknowledged globally.
“It is therefore important for Ghanaian nurses and midwives to go the extra mile to ensure excellent quality in the services they provide and this can be best achieved through research and innovative practices,” he stated.
He said, there was the need to scale up transformative, high-quality education and lifelong learning so that all nurses and midwives could have the needed skills set that matched the health needs of populations.
In his keynote address, the Rector, Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Prof. Richard Adanu, urged members of the GCNM to be innovative and utilise technology to provide healthcare.
He added that, GCNM must invest in teaching their trainings, members and fellows on how to conduct implementation research in relation to UHC and improve upon service delivery in the country.
The chairperson for the occasion, Prof. Lydia Aziato also urged nurses and midwives to continue learning to adjust to global trends.
“You must also be innovative and continue to network and collaborate with other nurses and midwives as well as other health professionals to improve upon your skills,” she stated.
The President of GCNM, Dr Mrs Abigail Kyei, also called for teamwork among health providers to help achieve common goal, adding that “Professionals must continue to work together in the healthcare industry, to maintain the common goal of quality management and ethical practice for the benefit of the society they have vowed to serve through their professions.”
The occasion was also used to launch the 10th Annirsary of GCNM which would be held next year. They also launched the GCNM Fellowship Programmes and also held a graduation and induction ceremony which saw 88 associate members and 57 members from Accra, Kumasi and Tamale training sites inducted into the membership of the college.
