The Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC) is partnering with a number of organizations to provide structured Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes for Nurses and Midwives in both the private and public sector.

The training programmes, with support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), are aimed at enhancing leadership, quality of care practices and skills in licensing and accreditation process.

The Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives Council, Reverend Mrs. Veronica Darko, stated during the opening ceremony on Monday that, there were no structured training programmes in place to support nurses and midwives managing health facilities to enhance their skills in the country.

The initiation of this programme, in partnership with institutions such as the Prince University College and Research Institute, is to encourage subsidized professional and skills acquisition as self-directed learning.

The emphasis is to ensure that a sustainable model is used to provide capacity building and professional development.

The two-day training is being attended by women owners of private Maternity Homes and Nurse Managers of hospital facilities.

Hajia Mariama Suleman, the Chairperson of the Nurses and Midwives Council noted that, women own over 90 per cent of private Maternity Homes, and deliver over 60 per cent of maternity and child health services.

According to her, about a quarter of all private healthcare businesses in Ghana are also run by women, but unfortunately, very few have access to training in business management, or support of any kind to enhance their technical and financial management skills or licensing and accreditation processes.

The structured CPD training has come at an opportune time when the public sector is having resource difficulties to support capacity development, she said.

The private sector collaboration with the Nurses and Midwives Council is a good innovation and encourages nurses and midwives in both the private and public sector to seize the opportunity to upgrade their skills.

She encouraged the collaborating partners accredited by the NMC to ensure that the courses delivered are of the highest quality, and led by competent professionals.

Dr Anthony Seddoh, an Operations Officer of the International Finance Corporation, during an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the IFC is committed to supporting the development of a viable private health sector that includes more women owned businesses.

This he noted, will not only enhance quality healthcare delivery in the deprived areas of the country, but can also provide much-needed employment opportunities, attract investors and drive economic growth.

Dr Seddoh noted that the current health sector regulatory environment needs to significantly improve to reduce the burden on SMEs acquiring licenses and accreditation for health facilities.

He, therefore, called on the government to quickly pass the Legislative Instrument for the implementation of the Health Institutions and Facilities Act, 2011, Act 829, and the amended National Health Insurance Scheme Act 2012, Act 852.

“This training programme will go a long way to enhance the skills of the private Maternity Homes Managers, in terms of both the quality of care they provide and their understanding of the accreditation and licensing process,” he said.

It will better enhance their accreditation success rate and grade points, he added.

The gender objective of the Health in Africa Initiative of the IFC aims to facilitate ease of doing business, access to finance, promote business sustainability and support business women.

Dr Sam Adjei, Chief Executive of the Centre for Health and Social Services (CHeSS), who launched the programme, noted that, Ghana was moving in a world economic ladder now classified as a middle income country, hence the health system must also respond to the change.

He said nurses and midwives must, therefore, be abreast with modern methods of care, and that was exactly what the course seeks to do.

Dr Alex Nazzar, the Head of Community Medicine at Princefield College and Research Institute, stated that supporting nurses and midwives training and female entrepreneurs will further enhance healthcare delivery and integrate them into the economy while encouraging the rapidly growing health’s Small and Medium Enterprises sector.