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A Professor of Paediatric at the University of Toronto, Dr Isaac Odame, has stated that the initiative to train paediatric nurses in the country, was one of the positive steps to address the health needs of children.
He said Ghana needs between 1,500 and 2,000 paediatric nurses to effectively provide for the health needs of children, adding that it is for that reason that Sickkids International had partnered the Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC), Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and the School of Nursing at the University of Ghana to train paediatric nurses for Ghana.
Under the initiative, Sickkids International is providing funding and technical support for the training and is also assisting with lecturers, practical skills and the development of curriculum, among other things.
Pediatric nursing or child health nursing, is the specialty nursing care of babies, children and adolescents. A nurse who specialises in this area is usually referred to as a paediatric nurse, although there are many regional and sub-specialty variations in title.
Previously, paediatric nurses from Ghana were trained in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
“We are doing our best so that Ghana can get the best. The acquisition of the skills would put Ghanaian nurses among the best,” Dr Odame, who is a representative of Sickkids International, told the Daily Graphic.
The programme was developed in Ghana and supported by Sickkids to boost child survival in the country.
Under the programme, 50 paediatric nurses are to be trained a year but Dr Odame said the initiative would have to be upscaled and expanded to increase the number to meet demands.
Dr Odame, who interacted with the nurses at the maiden paediatric nursing licensing examination in Accra, said with under-five mortality reduced and better nutrition for children, more needed to be done in the area of health.
The first and second batches of 50 nurses took part in the examination.
The Chief Executive Office and Registrar of the NMC, Rev. Veronica Darko, who was also at the examination centre, said the council was in discussions with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University for Development Studies (UDS) to expand the programme to those institutions.
The Nurses and Midwives’ Council of Ghana was formed as a result of a merger between the then Nurses Board and the Midwives Board as decreed by the National Redemption Council, NRCD 117 of 1972.
It runs 13 programmes; Registered Mental Nursing, Registered General Nursing, Registered Community Nursing, Registered Midwifery, Community Health Nursing, Health Assistant Clinical, Ear Nose and Throat Nursing, Critical Care Nursing, Peri Operative Nursing, Paediatric Nursing, Public Health Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing and Post Basic Midwifery.
