Only 9,000 nurses in the country

There are only 9,000 nurses working in the whole country, though about 40,000 would have been ideal because of the work load at the hospitals and clinics throughout Ghana.

Miss Eve Abotsi, Akatsi District Chairperson of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) made this known in a short address at a thanksgiving mass at the Christ the King Catholic Cathedral at Akatsi, to round off this year’s Nurses Week celebration.

The theme for the Week was, “Nurses always there for you, united against violence.” The said scores of Ghanaian nurses had left the country to seek greener pastures in foreign lands “because we face some risk of violence coupled with poor salaries and wages.”

Miss Abotsi said the International Council of Nurses chose the theme to focus public attention on violence against women and other innocent people throughout the world. According to her, about two million people die globally annually through violence, “while several millions also suffer permanent disabilities.”

She touched on sexual harassment against women, and called on the general public to fight this canker which has caused embarrassment to many a decent woman.

Miss Abotsi, who is a nursing officer at the Akatsi clinic stated that nurses, humans as they are, had been offending the public in many ways, but added that “we are always ready to be corrected.”

She called for co-operation from the public for a better health delivery to them.

In a comment, Very Rev. Father William Techie, Cathedral Administrator advised nurses to handle patients with more patience.

He told the congregation that a person who is very sick might not be in the right frame of mind to act correctly, adding that “nurses therefore need tact and patience to handle such people.”

He also advised that people who visit hospitals and clinics for treatment should also bear with the nurses whose work he described as tedious.

The Regional Chairman of the Association, Mr. Samuel Agbo, later told The Mirror that the Week had been set up to draw public attention to nurses’ work.

He called on his colleagues to rededicate themselves to their work, pointing out that by their training and calling, they were to save lives.