Nursing in Ghana has evolved through the years to become a formidable profession.

Taking cognisance of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana's vision of ensuring the best of nursing care to the good people of Ghana, we the leadership of the Unemployed Registered Graduate Nurses wish to express our grievous disappointment at the way the Ministry of Health and for that matter government is handling the employment of nurses trained in the universities, popularly called 'degree nurses'.

It is quite unfathomable that in this era of advancement in nursing care, the government of Ghana finds it very comfortable to allow nurses trained with the taxpayers' money-in the various universities-to sit in the house and not create the enabling environment for them to render essential services to the state .

It is worth mentioning that the various hospitals in Ghana, i.e. Teaching, Regional, District, and Community Health Centres lack enough registered nurses to carry out nursing services despite the availability of over 600 trained, qualified and certified registered general nurses produced by the various universities over the years.

The irony of the whole issue is that government continues to express its unflinching commitment to the provision of quality healthcare for all Ghanaians.

In other jurisdictions, the focus is to train nurses with higher knowledge and expertise to render high quality nursing care.

The story, however, seems to be different in Ghana. It is regrettably sad that licensed graduate nurses spanning from 2011 to date exist without employment.

Most of the private hospitals continue to turn down applications of certified registered nurses and rather go for underqualified staff who are made to 'replace' qualified nurses in their various institutions.

We are very much aware of standards that exist for the establishment of a hospital, in terms of nursing requirements. However, very little is done in terms of supervision to ensure that the hospitals employ the right calibre of nurses.

The few private hospitals that employ these graduate nurses also take undue advantage of their unemployment challenges and thus grossly underpay them.

Again, in the government's recent recruitment of nurses and midwives, notices were overtly displayed on the notice boards of the Regional Health Directorates indicating that Ghana Health Service Recruitment Forms should not be sold to 'degree nurses', a situation we say is unhealthy for the advancement of nursing in Ghana. We nonetheless, ask these fundamental questions:

1. What is basically encouraging government to leave nurses to waste in the house after four years training in the Universities and an additional year of Internship?

2. Which other jobs are more suitable and available for us to do aside nursing after training as nurses?

2. Are degree nurses not competent enough to work in the numerous government healthcare facilities that are in need of Nursing staff?

3. What is the future of students who are currently studying nursing in the various universities and those hoping to be enrolled as Nursing Students in our universities considering the current circumstance?

4. What specific plans does the government have to bring a lasting solution to graduate nurse unemployment?

In the light of the above, we call on government and its agencies responsible for employing nurses to expedite actions to get degree nurses posted to various hospitals to serve their country with the skills they have acquired through training.

We also entreat government to take measures to export nurses to other countries, if the government feels our health sector is now inundated with nurses in order to curb the situation of unemployment.

In conclusion, government should consider the plights of unemployed graduate nurses and show much more commitment in ensuring that they bring their skills and knowledge to function for the development of the country in the area of healthcare.

All Heads of Nursing Departments of the various Universities should also speak to the unemployment problems faced by the products they churn out into the job market.

These we believe will also revive the dead hopes of Student Nurses undergoing training in various parts of the country.

As nurses, we do not fancy issuing threats and ultimatums, nevertheless, we implore government to clearly spell out measures they have put in place to nib the canker of degree nurse unemployment in the bud as soon as possible.

Moreso, various engagements between the leadership of the Unemployed Graduate Nurses and the government agencies concerned have not yielded any promising results.

The already frustrated unemployed graduate nurses, demoralized student nurses, friends and families who are tax payers as well, are all expectant of a rapid and positive response to this social and health emergency, from government and all stakeholders. We pray and hope that their hopes will not be in vain.

Long live the nursing profession!

Long live Ghana!!

Sgd:

Benson Amoako

(Ag. Chairman) 0209312310