GRNMA calls for the cancellation of certificate and diploma nursing courses

General Secretary for the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Dr. David Tenkorang Twum has indicated the need to scrap Diploma and Certificate nursing courses in the country.

He is of the view that nursing should not have three entry points into the career, as other countries have implemented.

Dr David Tenkorang Twum was speaking on Joy News when he made this known.

He indicated that Nigeria has implemented such a policy and this helps to provide quality healthcare as practitioners are better equipped with their Bachelor Education and skills.

“The current picture is bizarre. In Ghana, Nursing Is the only profession with three levels of entry. Almost 60% of our nurses are auxiliary, and we think that is not the way to go. We think that the majority must be degree-prepared. So we have to cancel Certificate programmes, we have to cancel diploma programmes and train Nurses at the Degree Level.

It is a bold decision and we need to do that. When you go to next door Nigeria, anybody practising as a registered nurse has a first degree; that’s where it starts. We could do better than them. We have the human resource, we have the schools that can do that.

On the share of nurses with certificates and diplomas as compared to degree holders, he said, “The auxiliary nurses account for 60% while degree holders account for 40% of the workforce. In Ghana the Degree trained and the Diploma trained nurses are professionals but what we think is that if we are able to prepare them at the Bachelor levels, it will help. All these maternal indicators that we are seeking talk about and we want improvement in maternal health and all that premises on that. As I alluded on, research is abound on how highly skilled and highly prepared nursing workforce,” he said.

On what will happen to holders of certificates and diplomas in nursing when such courses are cancelled, he said “If we cancel the training of certificate and diploma nurses, we can upgrade the knowledge if those who are here, and they are actually doing that. We have access to courses that are churned out if you like upgrading the knowledge of those with certificates and diplomas to degrees. They will not be abandoned, previously, you would have had to improve your grades, but now they have access courses,” he said on Accra-based Joy News.

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