From left: Dr. Mary Opare, HOD for Nursing, Central University, Mr. Mafugi Bojang, Registrar of N&MC, The Gambia, Mr. Alasana Darboe, Deputy Registrar of N&MC, Gambia, Rev. Veronica Darko, Chairperson 14th Governing Board of N&MC Ghana and Mrs. Philomina Woolley, Deputy Registrar of N&MC Ghana.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana (N&MC) on Monday received a two-member delegation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of The Gambia.
The visit offered the delegation the opportunity to understudy N&MC’s licensing examination structure with particular interest in the online licensing examination which Ghana has been touted as the first in Africa to introduce.
The visit led by Mafugi Bojang, Registrar of the Council in The Gambia and accompanied by his Deputy Registrar, Alasana Darboe, also formed part of the efforts of The Gambia to restructure and transform its nursing and midwifery education, training and practice.
Mr. Bojang said they chose to understudy Ghana due to the overwhelming credibility and integrity of the country’s robust regulatory system for the training, education and practice of nursing and midwifery.
Receiving the delegation, Deputy Registrar in charge of Operations at the N&MC, Philomina Woolley, with the assistance of some senior officers, took the delegation through series of presentations and discussions on the Council’s mandate, change management processes of the online licensing examination, digitization of the indexing process, renewal of license to practice and the general operations of the Council.
Mrs. Woolley disclosed that with the implementation of the online licensing examination which commenced in September 2018, 374 Registered Mental Health Nurses from three training institutions were the first to sit for the online licensing examination.
She added that “currently close to 8,000 nursing and midwifery candidates have taken licensing examination in Registered Mental Health Nursing, Registered Community Nursing, Registered Midwifery, Post NAC/NAP Midwifery, Peri-Operative Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Critical Care Nursing, Public Health Nursing and Ear, Nose and Throat Nursing”.
It is the expectation that in the year 2020, the Registered General Nursing and Registered Nurse Assistants (Clinical/Preventive) programmes will be rolled on to make the entire conduct of the licensing examination by the Council fully digitized.
The Gambian delegation were highly impressed about the delivery by the Council and recommended the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana to assist them to restructure and transform the nursing and midwifery regulatory system.
According to the delegation, they were ever ready to understudy and implement the transformational models and initiatives introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana.
BY Jamila Akweely Okertchiri