A retired registered nurse-midwife, Mrs. Sarah Ayanful, has tasked her colleagues in active service to adopt positive attitudes and uphold professionalism in the discharge of their duties to enable them to meet health challenges of the 21st century.

She said that the contemporary nurse must provide total nursing, made up of the physical, psychological, social and mental needs of patients in to improve health care delivery in Ghana.

Mrs. Ayanful was delivering the keynote address at the maiden graduation ceremony and homecoming event of the Cape Coast Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Cape Coast on Friday, on the theme: “the role of nurses and midwives in the promotion of quality health care in Ghana in the 21st century”.

Four hundred and thirty-nine nurses and midwives graduated with certificates and diplomas in Registered General Nursing and Registered Midwifery.

Mrs. Ayanful said nurses form the largest workforce in the health care sector, and must make conscious efforts to build solid professional identity by giving off their best.

The central regional minister, in a speech read on her behalf, asked nurses to improve upon their service delivery until they achieve excellence, reminding them that the rights of patients were very important.

The Principal of the college, Mrs. Cecilia Mensah, said the health training institution started as a Nursing Training School in 1948 and was converted into a College in 1960.

She reiterated calls on nurses and midwives to employ best practices to enhance their public image, and asked them to avoid lateness and change their attitudes for the better "in the face of more complex challenges such as population explosion, upsurge in domestic violence and rise in motor accidents."

The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Samuel Tetteh Kwashie, asked the graduands to work with positive professional attitude to salvage their sinking image.