The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives’ Association (GRNMA) has questioned the government’s plan, made through the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), to deploy graduates from Senior High Schools (SHS) to help nurses at the country’s Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds.
The GRNMA’s General Secretary, David Tenkorang, told Alfred Ocansey on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Monday, August 22, that the decision was rash.
He added that there are now around 20,000 unemployed nurses available and willing to work. As a result, he stated, the association will not endorse the government’s initiative.
Read Also: Cedi depreciation: About $2bn to be injected into economy – Oppong Nkrumah
“The programme is not well thought through, it will drain the economy. How can you allow half baked people to work and you are thinking of productivity?” He stated.
In an earlier statement the GRNMA issued on Monday, 22 August 2022 the association noted that: “Indeed the work in these rural communities can be quite daunting for CHNs to the extent that they can hardly have time to attend to their personal and career development issues. They therefore require assistance but not from Senior High School (SHS) graduates.”
“Nurse Assistant (Preventive) who are also appointed as CHNs. 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,” it added.
The statement further said the decision is “disturbing and a clear displacement of Ghana’s priority to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 3(SDG 3) and Universal Health Coverage by 2030.”
Meanwhile, Mohammed Awal, the YEA’s Head of Public Affairs, stated on the Ghana Tonight Show on Monday that this initiative is not new.
He indicated that it had been in operation since 2006 but had been discontinued in 2018.
He stated that the SHS graduates are given a three-week training to prepare them for the assignment.
SOURCE: 3NEWS
