A Former Vice Chairperson of the Convention Peoples Party ( CPP) and Public interest advocate, Rhodalyn Imoro Ayana, is advocating for the inclusion of Nursing Training Schools on University selection forms for WASSCE candidates.
According to Rhodalyn Imoro Ayana, Nursing training should not be chosen as a back-up option for people who fail to gain admission their desired choice.
Speaking on tv3 on Thursday, August 28, she expressed concern about the lack of confidence in public hospitals as people believe that nurses being employed are not up to standard.
“People prefer private hospitals now over going to the public hospitals. It’s beginning to look like how we’ve rejected our public schools and are now going to international schools,” she said.
She added, “People are beginning to think that nurses that are being employed are not up to the task. You hear all manner of things like ‘they are not qualified, they went with 54’ in terms of grading”
Rhodalyn Imoro Ayana suggested that the high expectations placed on people who want to become doctors should also apply to those that want to become nurses.
“If it is difficult to enter med school because you need to have very good grades, then we must also find a way to make sure that we get the best to enter nursing schools,” she argued.
She further stressed that it is wrong for people to decide to become nurses because they were unable to study for their original desired profession, as the health and lives of patients are in their hands.
Advocated for the inclusion of Nursing Training schools on the WASSCE school selection forms to ensure that nursing training is made a first choice for students.
“At the time that you have a WASSCE form in front of you and you are choosing a university, we must have a nursing training college on it, because most of them are tertiary institutions now and they offer diploma and degree. I think it should be included so that you choose nursing as a first option,” she said.
According to her, this would make the public have more confidence in nurses.
“I think that the way some nurses are being looked down upon is because people feel like they are not qualified to be there but that may not the case. So, if we make it that you choose to be a nurse, by choice and not because you did not get an option to go and do business administration or accounting, that might be able to help us,” she explained.
This follows findings of an investigative committee formed by the Ministry of Health after the alleged assault of a Ridge Hospital staff member on August 17, which exposed gaps in emergency care.
The probe’s findings include gross inadequacies in security, severe staff shortages, overstretching of the emergency department and non-functioning imaging equipment.
