Ministry promises incentive schemes for nurses

Accra (Greater |Accra) 13 May ?99

Mr Samuel Nuamah Donkor, Minister of Health, on Wednesday launched the 1999 National Nurses' Week in Accra, pledging incentive schemes to motivate nurses and other health workers to give of their best.

He said nurses and health professionals cannot be dedicated to their work when there are no incentive schemes to help motivate them.

The week is being celebrated under the theme "Celebrating Nursing's Past: Claiming the Future."

It was attended by representatives of nurses throughout the country, retired nurses and some stakeholders in the health profession.

The same theme has been chosen for this year's International Council for Nurses' Centennial Conference to be held in London in June.

Mr Nuamah Donkor said because there are not enough schemes to motivate nurses and other health professionals, most of them leave the country for "greener pastures."

He called for a system that will have a "combined curriculum" to enrol senior secondary school leavers into community health programmes.

Mr Nuamah Donkor said the National Health Scheme (NHS), which was to have taken off in December last year, could not come on due to the strike actions by doctors and the nurses.

He expressed the hope that the strike action by the nurses would be the last so as to enable the scheme to take off peacefully this year.

The minister said future health care demand is expected to increase, as more people become better educated.

"They will demand services that are more economical, while expectations about quality and responsiveness are likely to rise."

Mr Nuamah Donkor advised the nurses to acquire a wide range of managerial and technical skills to broaden their skills.

Mrs Emma Banga, President of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), said the week's celebrations is to reflect on nursing achievement, draw lessons from failures and decide what directions to take for the advancement of the profession in the country.

She called on the ministry of health to help retain more nurses, saying the shortage of nurses has reached a crisis point due to low levels of salary for the skills needed in the profession.

"At present, there are under 11,000 trained nurses. This works out to a ratio of about one to 1,600 people."

The nurses appealed to the minister to help change some of the negative views held by nurses generally by developing programmes to improve their communication skills and inter-personal relationships with patients and other health professionals.