Health Ministry to investigate maltreatment of student nurses
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has vowed to investigate the alleged maltreatment of student nurses by some heads of health training institutions.
Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Tia Sugri, said his office continues to be inundated with complaints about the bad behaviour and that a Committee would be established to investigate them.
He announced this at the opening ceremony of a five-day performance review and selection meeting of the heads of the training institutions in Kumasi on Monday.
The review provided the platform to discuss ways of improving the performance of the staff and how to increase the human resource capacity in areas relevant to health care delivery.
Dr Sugri saluted the private sector for assisting in the training of more qualified health personnel to complement the effort of government.
He said to help tackle the shortage of health workers the Ministry’s policy has been to increase admissions to the training institutions.
This, he said, explains why intake figures had gone up from between 650 and 750 in the 1990’s to 7,000 since 2008.
He expressed satisfaction with the effective and vibrant training schemes put in place by the institutions backed by practical attachments tailored for peculiar health needs to ensure that skills are available to the rural areas.
Dr Aaron Offei, Ashanti Regional Director of Health, identified funding and inadequate infrastructure as major constraints confronting the institutions but said these notwithstanding they are performing well.
Dr Kwesi Asabir, Acting Director of Human Resource Development, gave the assurance that the institutions would be expanded to provide quality training.
Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, said the government would do everything to address challenges facing the health sector.
Source: GNA
Bravo to the M.O.H for such a decision but we hope it will be firm and effective very soon so that it will be obvious to the citizens of Ghana that m.o.h is producing future nurses who will not maltreat patients in the various hospitals.These days principals of various health institutions have been maltreating student nurses of which i can testify as a national executive of ghana nurse and midwife trainees association.so many complains have been made to the ministries but of no much intervention but i am so glad that they have confirmed these bad acts themselves. no wonder nurses these days somehow fustrate some patients,its all because of this maltreatment they experience during training and this maltreatment is not curbed we will produce matreated nurses who will intend maltreat patients.
Notwithstanding, unapproved fees by m.o.h which some principals have been charging is also a major headache to student nurses which fustrate them a lot and when an attempt is been made to question some principals for further explanation they are been threatened. As i am typing now i have in my hand a midwifery training college bill which includes staff motivational fees of ghc50 which i doubt if approved by the m.o.h because staff are already motivated by the government through their monthly salary.Infact this country,ghana is no more producing commited nurses but rather producing fees paying money conscious and protocol nurses who dont have the heart to care for patients.I propose to the m.o.h especially the pre-service department to initiate effective supervision and intervention of student nurses problems during training in order to produce good nurses who will render quality heathcare to patients else the country will suffer much in the hands of future nurses.there are much more problems fustrating and maltreating student nurses but will be released to the media soon if not intervened by the appropriate authorities.longlive NURSES longlive GHANA
We hope for the best
well said Douglas.