When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, healthcare workers were classed as the main frontline workers in the global pandemic response.

Their sacrifices during the period have long been documented and researched, the aftermath, however, lives with many of these front liners, particularly nurses.

Scholastica Amekugee, a Ghanaian nurse based in the United States, braved through the pandemic in active service but a year later, she saw a void that she moved to plug.

Mrs. Amekugee, a product of the University of Ghana, Legon; seeing the effect the pandemic era had on herself and fellow nurses went into entrepreneurship, she established the Nurse Staffing Agency NSA LLC, also known as Scepter Care NSA.

"As a nurse working during the pandemic, Mrs. Amekugee experienced firsthand the challenges nurses and other professionals in the healthcare industry had to contend with, from long hours at work to fears of infecting families and loved ones with COVID-19," a brief on what motivated her to start NSA LLC read.

The document, a copy of which is available to GhanaWeb added that: "She established this business to help address some of these challenges by providing staffing assistance to healthcare facilities in the south suburbs and offering flexibility to nurses who were otherwise ready to quit the profession due to personal and/or family commitments."

Although the conditions of service for nurses have slightly improved since the pandemic, available evidence shows that the labour market especially in developed economies, has not been the same since 2020.

What NSA LLC, based in Chicago aims to do thus is empower nurses, who would ordinarily quit the profession for professional or personal reasons, to stay on in the profession by having flexibility to work and take care of their personal or familial commitments.

From Theatre Arts to Nursing: The story of Scholastica Amekugee:

Scholastica Amekugee is a mother of three who immigrated from Ghana to the United States of America 11 years ago.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre Directing from the University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts, Legon.

Shortly after migrating to the United States, Scholastica's oldest son was diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease – a condition that had gone undiagnosed for three years of his life.

Her son’s diagnosis changed the trajectory of her career. She enrolled at the Chicago State University to pursue nursing and later transferred to Chamberlain University, where she completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and become a Registered Nurse in 2018.

In 2016, following her son’s sickle cell diagnosis, Scholastica founded Dzisel Health Organization, a non-profit which advocates and supplements the care needs of children with Sickle Cell Disease, especially in Ghana.

She worked closely with the late Dr. Ohene Frimpong, a Ghanaian pediatric hematologist-oncologist, sickle cell expert, and a former board chair of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

She worked with Frimpong on various Sickle Cell projects including an educational documentary about the disease. She continues to work in partnership with the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital’s Sickle Cell Clinic in Accra and the Lurie Children's Sickle Cell program in Chicago.

Scholastica has worked as a floor nurse and has additional expertise working in other departments like the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Her expertise in home health, medical-surgical, telemetry, rehab, and psychiatry became crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic allowing her to serve as an agency travel nurse, assisting in various departments. She even went out of state to work as an ICU nurse at an Indiana hospital.

In 2019, Scholastica founded a cleaning company providing commercial and residential cleaning services. Today, the company has expanded to become a staffing agency, legally registered as Nurse Staffing Agency - NSA LLC, doing business as Scepter Care NSA.

The agency, now 3 years old, is a minority/Black-owned and woman-owned (MBE/WBE) company. It staffs nurses and other allied healthcare professionals across Illinois and is working to expand its reach nationwide.

With more than 200 professionals across the state, Scepter Care NSA provides expert staffing support to healthcare facilities of any caliber on an as-needed or temporary contract basis.

The company also collaborates closely with corporate organizations through healthcare risk management, providing screening services and routine healthcare education for corporate employees.

With its value of CARE – compassion, accountability, reliability, and excellence – Scepter Care is quickly becoming the preferred agency for both healthcare facilities and professionals, as it prioritizes patients' goals and protects professionals' careers and well-being.

Scholastica is completing her master’s in business administration with a concentration in Healthcare Management at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).

Combining her over a decade of entrepreneurial experience with her healthcare knowledge, Scholastica Amekugee also provides business startup coaching and consultation.

About NSA LLC

According to its website, it is a nurse recruiting agency based in Homewood, Chicago in the state of Illinois and is dedicated to connecting healthcare facilities with top-tier nursing talent.

NSA LLC was established in 2021 by Homewood resident, Mrs. Scholastica Amekugee (RN) following the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated job cuts.

Since its establishment, NSA LLC, a minority and woman-owned business (MBE/WBE) has provided nurses to assisted living facilities, skilled facilities, psych homes and hospitals in the south suburbs and the Chicago-land area, ensuring these hospitals and healthcare facilities are not understaffed and improving their nurse-to-patient ratio and by extension the conditions of service for the nurses.

Working with a team of experienced and professional healthcare workers, NSA LLC has a track record of delivering unparalleled accountability and exceptional experiences to clients.

The company provides a range of healthcare staffing services including per diem staffing, temporal, interim, or permanent staffing drawing from its wide-ranging nursing and allied healthcare talents.

As a WBE/MBE company, NSA LLC currently provides services statewide and is working on expanding its services nationwide.

It prides itself on its personalized approach to recruitment, ensuring that each candidate is thoroughly vetted and matched with positions that suit their expertise and aspirations.

SARA

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