Reviewed curricula for Nursing and Midwifery Training

Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - The Ghana Nurses and Midwives' Council (NMC) of Ghana on Friday launched reviewed curricula for the training of nurses and midwives to bring about change in the profession. It is also to help update the knowledge and skills of students to meet the changing trends in the practice of the profession and societal needs.

The reviewed curricula include additions such as integrated management of childhood illnesses, intermittent preventive treatment of malaria, adolescent sexual and reproductive health services, community-based health planning, HIV/AIDS care as well as interpersonal communication and counselling/behavioural change communication.

In his address, Mr. Abraham Dwomoh Odoom, a Deputy Minister of Health, expressed the hoped that the inclusion of behaviour change Communication in the curricula would not only equip trainee nurses and midwives with adequate knowledge and skills to change the behaviours of their clients, but would also change their own attitudes towards their patients and clients.

"If you show love, affection and fellow feeling towards your patients and clients, they will appreciate the conditions under which you are working and therefore cooperate with you," he said. Mr Odoom also said when the revised curricula were well manifested in the practice of students after their graduation, they would help Ghana achieve the Millennium Development Goals four, five and six, and urged students to consider themselves as crucial agents who would bring about this change.

The Deputy Minister said it was gratifying that current policy directive of the Ministry was also captured in the various curricula, adding that this would introduce students to its operations to enable them to find their bearings when they came out of school. He commended the Nurses and Midwives' Council for living up to its responsibility, but recommended that issues on regenerative health and nutrition be discussed during tutorials to equip the professionals with adequate knowledge to educate their patients to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Mr John S.K. Ayim, Chairman of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), commended the effort of the Nurses and Midwives' Council to upgrade training in its various professional institutions. He urged various nursing and midwifery training institutions that had not met the demands for accreditation to ensure that their facilities satisfied the requirements for professional competence.

"We, at the Accreditation Board look out for facilities that ensure basic standards of academic excellence on the part of trainees," he said.

Mr Ayim said the NAB, on its visits to Nursing and Midwifery training institutions in the country in the 2004, identified basic deficiencies such as lack of qualified teaching staff, librarians, administrative staff, poor and inadequate facilities like staff offices, internet connectivity and computer laboratories.

He noted that though some of the Colleges had improved extensively as at August 2007, until they attained Charter statuses, an older accredited institution had to award qualifications on their behalf. Mr Ayim urged the Ministry of Health and Management of the Nursing Training Colleges and Nurses and Midwives' Council to continuously assist these institutions to attract qualified staff and provide them with adequate facilities to enable them to continue to turn out first class professionals of international standard.

Ms Veronica Darko, Registrar and Chief Executive of the NMC, said collaborations to review the curricula started in August 2005 with stakeholders including the Quality Health Partners (QHP), Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP), Community-Based Health Planning and Services-Technical Assistant (CIPS-TA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

She said a 35-member task force comprising clinicians and educators from the various disciplines of Midwifery, General Nursing, Community and Public Health Nursing as well as Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing was constituted for the project.