The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has kicked against Youth Employment Agency’s (YEA) plans to recruit and train Senior High School (SHS) graduates to support nurses at Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds.
The association says the move is disturbing as there are about 10,727 Nurse Assistants (Clinical and Preventive) who already had accessed the Ministry of Health (MoH) recruitment portal and were awaiting deployment.
“In total, there is a backlog of over 20,000 nurses and midwives of all cadres belonging to 2019, 2020, 2021 batches also awaiting employment,” the association indicated.
YEA had announced a programme which seeks to train over 5,000 SHS graduates nationwide to support nurses stationed at CHPS compounds by the end of August.
In a statement, GRNMA bemoaned the politicisation of the career is getting out of hand, adding any training that does not conform to its standard is a threat to the lives of Ghanaians.
“Recording of medical history and symptoms, conducting physical examination and providing bedside care requires special skills which can only be provided by trained health personnel.
“Any training of SHS graduates which does not conform to standards set out by the NMC will pose a threat to the lives of all Ghanaians, especially those in our rural communities whose first point of access to healthcare and in some cases the only access to health services are the CHPS compounds,” the statement lamented.
It has, therefore, as a matter of urgency, urged YEA to halt the intended training.
Below is the full statement: