Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd), Minister of Health on Tuesday expressed concern about the current breed of nurses whose attitude to work lacked the true nursing spirit of 'Florence Nightingale'. He said, it had come to his notice that majority of the student nurses entered into the profession as a stepping-stone to other fields therefore did not have that feeling of kindness, care and love for patients. This year, 78,000 people applied for the nursing training out of which 40,000 qualified but only 6,000 were admitted. Speaking to the media in Accra after presenting 10 VW Mascarello buses to 10 health training institutions throughout the country, the Minister said it was observed that the current nurses mishandled patients "and I hear some even give knocks to patients which is sad". Major Quashigah noted that the healing process of a patient was 50 per cent care from the nurse and 50 percent from the medication, adding, the 50 per cent care from the nursing is currently missing therefore prolonging the healing process". He urged the principals of the health training institutions to instil into the students the true spirit of nursing and teach them to show that spirit of care for patients. He said the regenerative policy had been accepted and the Ministry would be engaging principals to help them develop a comprehensive training manual to the training institutions. The Minister called on the principals to focus more on the training of disease prevention, which would help the students also educate the public on healthy lifestyles.Source: GNA