Two young ladies showed their class when they swept most of the academic awards at the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) and Dental School of the College of Health Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Dr Fathia Ayodele Karim was the overall best student at the medical school, while Dr Louisa Kwakye-Ansong was the best dental student.
They were inducted into the medical profession by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council along with 174 other newly-qualified doctors of the School of Medical Sciences at a ceremony in Kumasi.
Dr Fathia Karim, 25, made history on Saturday when she shattered the academic records of the school.
The new doctor, a former student of the Wesley Girls’ Senior High School, Cape Coast, grabbed 12 of the 15 awards available, making her the all-time best graduating student for the School of Medical Sciences since its inception over 40 years ago.
She expressed her happiness for the academic success, giving thanks to God for the feat achieved.
Even though she conceded that she worked for them, she least expected more than 10 awards.
Dr Karim has, therefore, taken the laurels from Charles Djugbah who last year broke the 40 years record of the school by picking eight awards.
Dr Louisa Kwakye-Ansong, also 25, picked six of the nine awards at the Dental School.
An alumna of SOS Hermann Gmeiner College in Tema, among the list of awards received, bagged the conveted best student award from the Dental School.
Induction
The inductees, including 19 dental surgeons, had successfully undergone the certified medical training as required by the council and as such licensed to practice.
They comprised 16 foreign students from Pakistan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Benin, and this brings to more than 2,300 the number of doctors trained so far by the School of Medical Sciences since its establishment some four decades ago.
Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso, the new KNUST Vice-Chancellor, said the university had over the years worked assiduously to expand the scope of medical training to cover dentistry and veterinary, as well as herbal medicine, allied health sciences and public health.
The development, he said, had contributed immensely to the advancement of healthcare in the country, mentioning that they were committed to producing highly-skilled health personnel for the benefit of the nation.
KNUST, per an agreement signed recently with the Ghana Health Service, had been mandated to mentor all the health training institutions of the Ministry of Health (MoH).
They encompass nursing and midwifery training colleges, community and environmental health training colleges, as well as health assistants’ training schools across the country.
Prof Obiri-Danso said the KNUST College of Health Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Modern Languages, had launched a novelty Twi medical glossary for clinical students and health workers.
The booklet, funded by the Medical Education Partnership Initiative, a project of the university, is to facilitate learning by clinical students and also act as an aid for clinicians not conversant with the Twi or Akan language.
The vice-chancellor expressed optimism that the initiative would help improve communication between the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and related health workers with clients in their clinical practice.
Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), charged the inductees to demonstrate commitment to their work as mandated by the Hippocratic Oath.
He urged them to be selfless, committed and dedicated in their practice in line with the medical profession which demanded that practitioners must have an unquestionable sense of duty.
Professor Tsiri Agbenyega, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences, stressed the need for the newly-qualified doctors to be receptive to their clients to enhance the patient-doctor relationship.