Community Health Nurses (CHN) are threatening to embark on a nationwide strike over change of their position to Nursing Assistants.

Speaking on Adom FM’s ‘Dwaso Nsem’, the National President of Community Health Nurses Association, Esther Bamfo said the association is giving the National Midwifery Council a two-week ultimatum to reverse the change to CHN.

“It is not just about the name that has been changed, we have been demoted and that is not fair,” she stated.

Regulators of Community Health Nurses, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) changed CHN to Nursing Assistants based on the 2013 Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 857.

According to the National President of Community Health Nurses Association, leadership of the association were not consulted before the decision was made.

Community Health Nursing has been in existence since1960 and have become an important point of call in the health service delivery especially in rural parts of the country

Community Health Nurses are nurses who are given two year training after completing secondary School to work at the community level to undertake and champion health promotion and prevention.

“When we first heard about the name change, we thought it was just a rumour, and then we got a letter from our regulators,” she stated.

The president added that the Community Health Nurses are rejecting the new name because Nursing Assistants do not have conditions of service.

All efforts by the leadership of the association to reverse the decision have failed.

“We will have no other option than to embark on a strike if we don’t hear from them in two weeks,” she added.