Maiden Paediatric Nursing Licensing examination underway

The maiden Paediatric Nursing Licensing Examination started in Accra on Monday and it is to equip the health sector with highly qualified and specialized and licensed paediatric nurses to take care of the special health care needs of children.

With this new licensing examination, Ghana’s health sector would soon see a face lift and a new crop of specialized class of locally-trained paediatric nurses to work hand-in-hand with their counterparts in the medical field.

The 85 registered candidates that include 11 male and 74 female practicing nurses and midwives are sitting for the examination to earn them an international license in Paediatric Nursing from the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC) , the regulatory body under the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Mr Felix Nyante, Deputy Registrar, NMC, told journalists that candidates are registered and practicing nurses in the various care disciplines. They include Public Health, Mental Health, Community Nursing, Midwives and General Nursing.

He mentioned the entry requirement for the 12-month programme as a minimum of between three to five years working experiences in their initial fields of training and after the theoretical training the candidates were expected to proceed immediately on an additional year of internship before their final licensing examination.

Mr Nyante explained that the cumbersome procedure and processes were all aimed at ensuring quality and a refined calibre of Paediatric Nurses who would propel Ghana’s agenda of meeting the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by the stipulated date.

He said cthere are just a handful of such specialised trained nurses who had obtained their training and certificates from abroad and therefore the MOH in collaboration with its stakeholders conceived the vision of extending the opportunity to interested Ghanaian-trained nurses.

Mr Nyante said the training in the specialised area of nursing had been collaboration between the MOH and the Sickkids Hospital International of Toronto, Canada which had been providing technical support since 2011.