The Nursing & Midwifery Council (N&MC) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) have announced the suspension of the Nurse Assistant Clinical (NAC) and Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP) training programmes effective 2019/2020 academic year.
This directive follows a desk review meeting held by the ministry, N&MC, Ghana Health Service (GHS), CHAG, teaching hospitals and their stakeholders in respect of the health sector’s need for these cadres of staff.
The outcome of the review indicated that there are adequate numbers of NAC/NAP practitioners for the health sector, hence the directive to both public and private health training institutions to halt the training of such health officers.
“The aim of this regulatory policy is to streamline and strengthen the degree and diploma awarding programmes in nursing and midwifery in order to improve the standard of practice of nursing and midwifery,” the statement to the health training institutions stated.
“You are, by this letter, therefore, advised to plan towards folding up these programs if your institution is currently running such programs,” the statement sign by Felix Nyante, N&MC Registrar, added.
In all, 42 schools have been affected by the new directive. They include eight schools in the Greater Accra Region, five in the Ashanti Region, six in the Brong-Ahafo Region, four in the Eastern Region, two in the Volta Region, six in the Northern Region, one in the Upper East Region and three in the Upper West Region.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the N&MC, Nana Boateng Agyeman, stated that the decision was affirmed during a human resource forum held by the Ministry of Health (MoH) early this year.
He said the council, per the directive, has given enough time to the institutions to upgrade to diploma courses.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri