The Holy Family Nursing and Midwifery Training College (NMTC) at Berekum in the Brong Ahafo region has decided to run a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.
The degree programme is going to be run in partnership with the College of New Rochelle School of Nursing in the United States of America.
Currently, the college is a diploma-awarding nursing and midwifery training college and the collaboration was facilitated through the efforts of the Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, Most Rev Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi.
Madam Monica Nkrumah, the principal of the NMTC, who disclosed this at the 15th matriculation ceremony at Berekum on Thursday, 1st November 2012, said the college was the first nursing college in the country to have received an institutional reaccreditation for another five years from the National Accreditation Board(NAB) at its 88th meeting recently.
Madam Nkrumah however noted that the college was able to admit 150 students out of the 1, 117 who were shortlisted for admission interview for the 2012/2013 academic year out of which 100 were to pursue registered general nursing while 50 are offering midwifery, adding that the registered midwifery programme was reserve for females.
She stated further that with the matriculation of the 150 students, the total enrolment of the college now stood at 440, comprising 294 females and 146 males
Madam Nkrumah noted that in spite of the success chalked up by the school in the Licensure Examinations over the years, the college’s biggest challenge had been inadequate number of tutors in relation to the growing number of students.
She said the challenge was as a result of the college’s inability to attract and retain tutors due to lack of staff accommodation and appealed to the minister of health to assist the college with a 12-unit block of two-bedroom flats for the staff.
Again she said the college also lacked a standby electric power generator and power outages rendered students handicapped, especially in the evenings when they were supposed to use the lights for their studies.
She, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders of the college to come to their aid to enable it to obtain a standby generator.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye –Marfo, in his address, urged the students to be disciplined.
He bemoaned the poor attitude by some health personnel, especially towards patients, saying the major concern was that the numerous incentive schemes being implemented had had little effect on the envisaged behavioural change.
“It is our firm belief that the consistent review in your academic curricular to meet the exigency of the times will put you in an even better stead to render better services to the expectations of the general public, especially your clients”, Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo told the students.
The Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi also expressed concern about the unprofessional conduct of some health personnel and called for a change in attitude since the nursing profession is a humanitarian one and a call by God to serve the sick.
The Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, Dr Slyvester Anemana, also expressed concern about the increase in infant and maternal mortality in the country and called on health personnel to do more to reverse the trend.
Source: Samuel Duodo, Graphic
