Ghana is undoubtedly one of the countries that produce quality health care providers across the globe as far as nurses are concerned. Nurses in Ghana play a pivotal role in the health care delivery system. They are the beacon of quality health care delivery.

Nurses collaborate with Physicians and other paramedics within the health care fraternity to render holistic care to the people of Ghana and beyond. This unflinching holistic care ranges from physical, mental and social well-being. Ghanaian nurses have being working tirelessly from preventive to curative measures to ensure optimal health for their clients.

Nurses form a majority of the human resource of all health care settings and the situation in Ghana is no exception.

Nurses’ Training Colleges in Ghana have recorded a high enrollment over the years and this has warranted expansion of existing schools and establishment of new ones by the government. The number of nurses that graduate every year has increased greatly and this has seen the government having difficulty in employing them into our hospitals even though their services are invaluably needed.
The Nurses’ Training College, Ankaful, for example, was admitting about 158 students as at the year 2010 but recently admitted a little above 500 students for the 2014/2015 academic year which is over 300% increment. The Cape Coast Nurses and Midwifery Training College had the number of graduates increasing from 186 to about 392 at the years 2013 and 2015 respectively. This astronomical increase in infrastructure and trained nurses is however not reflecting in the hospitals and health facilities across the country since there is still acute shortage of nurses in recent years yet the colleges continue to train more nurses. The question is where are the nurses that the colleges produce each year?
Nurses who completed their training since 2013 are still sitting idle at home without the faintest idea as to when they are going to be employed by the government. Ironically, these nurses have signed a bond with the government to serve the nation for some specified number of years before they can leave the shores of Ghana. But it is clear from all indication that the government will have difficulty paying salaries when all are absorbed into the system. This situation has warranted what has become the order of the day, ‘strike’, for it is the only language the government understands. If this trend continues, nurses from the noble profession who are trained with highly skills and abilities would decay in their mothers’ kitchens while their clients and patients lay in the hospitals helplessly as a result of the shortage of nursing staff.

The continues strike and demonstrations by newly qualified nurses, some picketing at the ministry of health and others at Flagstaff house to vent their frustrations and grievances for the unemployment and their unpaid allowances, attest to the fact that all is not well with the government purse. The three month pay policy speaks it all.
Nursing training colleges, like other training colleges in Ghana since time immemorial are noted for direct absorption into hospitals right after completion. Nurses were once described as “hot cakes” because of the ready employment assured them after their training but the situation today can only be said with tears. The government has said time and again that it has no financial capability to pay newly qualified nurses if they are employed. Their assurance is that they should wait for financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance. As to when that financial clearance is coming, no one knows, not even the employer (MOH). These qualified nurses are left to their own fate.
This has affected the staff strength and nurse-patient ratio on the wards. It is easy these days to spot nurses picketing at the Ministry of Health than you can find them on the wards.
It is time government exports its nurses to foreign lands to earn income for the country. It does not require any rocket science to tell us that with the continuous expansion of existing nursing institutions and the creation of new ones, and with the government inability to employ trained nurses because of financial problems, the system would soon be flooded with unemployed nurses.
Government should leverage on the expansion and establishment of the training colleges and increased enrollment to train more nurses and export them to other countries who are in need of African nurses. This program if implemented will curb the brain drain problem the country has been facing over the years. It will also fetch the country lot of money while addressing the issue of staff shortage and unemployed nurses.
Cuba can be a reference point when it comes to exportation of human resource (Medical practitioners).
A word to the wise is enough.
NURSING!!! A NOBLE PROFESSION!!!

Courtesy:
Afful Graham
sirgrahamsgh@yahoo.com
A Practicing Mental Health Nurse