THE VOLTA Regional Branch of the Community Health Nurses Group (CHNG) has thrown its weight behind the national body in their decision to lay down their tools to fight against what they described as discrimination and a calculated attempt to prevent them access to career progression in the country.

According to them, despite the fact that Community Health Nurses (CHN) were not Diploma holders like the General Registered Nurses and Midwives, they did virtually the same work with the same risks, if not more.

They therefore found it improper to be discriminated against by way of job description, recognition as nurses, remuneration and career projection. They also expressed disgust over the term ‘Auxiliary Nurses’ used to describe them by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Nurses and Midwives Council.

These observations were made in a press statement presented to DAILY GUIDE by the group in Ho. The group had earlier held a meeting and a press conference in relation to their grievances.

The statement was signed by the Volta Regional Secretary of the Group, Madam Charlotte Gbologah. She stressed that despite discharging selfless and quality services, the CHN had suffered discrimination and frustration over the past 50 years, adding that the trend had to be reversed swiftly before things became worse.

The secretary lamented that after the two-year certificate programme, the Community Health Nurse had no clear cut career progression, adding that any CHN who aspired to a higher level in the nursing profession was forced to resign and start afresh to become a State Registered Nurse.

Madam Gbologa explained that remuneration of Community Health Nurses was also a clear case of discrimination and disregard for their profession. She added that although they discharged similar duties and faced equal, if not more risks, like the Diploma holders, they were woefully paid.

More so, the current structure of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GNRA) did not recognise Community Health Nurses, a situation she noted prevented the CHN from being part of any decision-making process of the GNRA.

The national executives of the Community Health Nurses raised similar concerns and objected to their grade on the Single Spine Salary Structure last month. As a result of all their concerns, they declared a strike action across the country, which has been welcomed by all its members across the country.

A Community Health Nurse by Ghana standards is a person trained to have a combination of nursing and public health knowledge and skills. She is an assistant to the Public Health Nurse. The concept was designed in 1960 to make up for the deficit in the public health system, which was faced with inadequate personnel.

Although the Community Health Nurse is supposed to be supervised by the Public Health Nurse, who is recognised as a state registered nurse, the persistent inadequacy of the latter (PHN) has made the former (CHN) formidable health personnel at the community and rural level.

A Community Health Nurse who gave her name as Pearl noted that “One can boldly say that the community health nurse has become the backbone of public health and preventive health care delivery in the country, with most of us mainly in the villages, hamlets and forgotten corners of the country which have in most cases been shunned by the state registered nurses.”