According to the Rector of Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (GCNM), Ms Hannah O.A Acquah, investing in nurses and midwives is crucial to the country's agenda of achieving Universal Health Coverage.
She added that nurses and midwives were change agents and with the right training and supportive environment, they could be leaders in their hospitals and communities.
Ms Acquah made these comments during the 10th anniversary second public lecture held in Accra. The lecture was titled “Advancing Paediatric Nursing Education: GCNM/Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Collaboration.”
The Paediatric Associate Membership Programme was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Health, the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives. This one-year specialized paediatric nursing education programme was aimed at improving access to quality health care, especially for children.
The Centre for Global Child Health at SickKids, along with its health system partners in Ghana, is improving access to quality health care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with additional financial support from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.
The funding is an extension to the SickKids-Ghana Paediatric Nursing Education Partnership (PNEP), which aims to train paediatric nurses and contribute to Ghana's national target of 1,500 paediatric nurses as part of the next generation of experts in child health over the next 10 to 15 years.
Ms Acquah said the collaboration was also aimed at developing a competency-based, natural nursing curriculum and building the capacity of faculty members and preceptors. She added that the partnership was driven by the gaps in the quality of care and access to healthcare for children in underserved areas and the need for children to have specialized healthcare professionals.
According to Ms Stephanie de Young, Senior Manager, Nursing Education, at SickKids, the project has been successful in training over 5,000 paediatric nurses in a one-year postgraduate program between 2015 and 2020. She said the project had strengthened the health system and improved the quality of paediatric care. She also highlighted the critical role of the program's practice-focused nature in its success.
Ms Acquah said that the College's plan was to make paediatric nursing education accessible to nurses and midwives across the country and engage stakeholders to recruit nurses to train and deploy to needy areas. This is expected to help the country achieve its national target of having 1,500 paediatric nurses.