Even before the recently named governing council for the Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC) takes office, over 30 graduate nurses from the University of Ghana, Legon, who have just completed their National Service expect them to act quickly to save their future.

They have also petitioned President John Evans Atta Mills to look into the raw deal being meted out to them by the Council The petition stems from the fact that the NMC has debarred these graduates from taking the final, licensure examination which qualifies them to become professional nurses.

The reason given by the council is that the affected graduates did not sit for elective subjects such as History, Economics or food and Nutrition at the Senior Secondary level.

The case is serious, and therefore demanding immediate presidential action because the exams are scheduled to be written from 2nd November to 18th December, 2009, and if care is not taken all the more than 30 would-be nurses would have lost the opportunity to enter the profession while the nation still grapples with the unavailability of nurses at the health institutions “One of the reasons these stringent entry requirements is the lack of space in the Nursing Training Institutions for more intake,” Felix Nyante Deputy Registrar at the council told this reporter in an interview.

Asked why then they seem to be frustrating the universities which apparently have enough space for admissions, Mr. Nyante promised that the then Health minister, George Sipa Yankey was working hard to resolve the issue. However, Dr. Sipa Yankey denied any knowledge of the problem, expressing disgust at the position of the council on the issue.

Unfortunately Dr. Yankey could not handle the issue before leaving office. Head of Human Resource at the Ministry of Health Dr. Appiah Denkyira also laid the blame at the door-steps of the dissolution of the NMC, explaining that the problem could only be tackled with a new NMC in place.

Alice Allotey, President of the Nurses Association also expressed surprise at the fact that the final list had been released with the affected graduates being denied entry. According to her a it had been decided at a stakeholders meeting that the list should not be released until the new council came and worked on a possible amnesty for the affected graduates.

According to a letter dated April 9, 2009, Ministry of Health wrote in response to a request by the School of Medical Sciences, granting amnesty to the over thirty graduates. It is however worrying that the council is still holding onto its position of denying them entrance into the profession they have trained for. What is most worrying is that the regulation which is being used to deny these future nurses access into the profession was introduced by the council in 2005, a year after the affected graduates had been admitted into the University for the Nursing Program.

Fortunately though, Mrs. Alice Allotey has just been named one of the members of the over 20-member council for the NMC.

It is hoped that the council would be sworn into office immediately so that they can tackle the burning issue on hand.

Steps also need to be taken to resolve the problem once and for all, as available information indicates that the problem could affect more groups, as there are those in Level 200in the University of Ghana, Legon currently right up to those doing their National Service also facing the same problem.