The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) will soon commence degree programmes in community health, general nursing, midwifery and environmental health for 16 health training institutions across the country.
The university, in connection with this, has started with the Centres of Excellence initiative on a pilot basis in selected institutions which will be supported to run top-up first degree programmes under the existing agreement with the Ministry of Health (MoH) this year.
Professor William Otoo Ellis, the Vice Chancellor, made this revelation at graduation ceremonies organised by KNUST for health training institutions in Ghana. In all, a total of 3,167 graduands from 27 health training institutions were awarded diplomas.
“KNUST with its rich experience in nurturing other institutions to attain full stature, have as part of our strategic focus advanced plans to nurture these health training institutions with the support of the government through the ministry, the Ghana Health Service and the Health Training Institutions Council to degree-awarding institutions,” Professor Ellis stated.
The KNUST’s team of experts from the Quality Assurance Unit and other requisite units have been carrying out training programmes for the selected institutions in preparation for the take-off. Also, the team has visited all the health training institutions to assess them in terms of student and staff accommodation, teaching and learning facilities including classrooms, laboratories, ICT infrastructure, municipal services, leadership, management and quality assurance, among others.
Professor Ellis used the occasion to caution the graduating nurses about the attitude of some healthcare providers and the way some of them treat their patients. He observed that now that they were products of KNUST, an international university among the best science and technology universities in the world, they must reflect that image in their output.
The KNUST’s alliance with health training institutions started with a formal signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on February 5, 2014 with the Ministry of Health after several years of consultations and preparations. The agreement gave the university the mandate to mentor all the health training institutions of the MoH.