The President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo has attributed the mass exodus of nurses and midwives from the country over the years to low salaries and poor conditions of service. 

She said nurses and midwives in Ghana contributed to the health system through the varied roles they played in clinical practice, education, research, public health, rehabilitation, administration, and management, among others. 

“Sadly, salaries and other conditions of service are not the best, and that is why many of our colleagues continue to emigrate from Ghana to other high-income earning countries, seeking greener pastures. The negative impact of this trend cannot be underestimated,” she said. 

Mrs Ofori-Ampofo said this when she addressed members of the Association and stakeholders at the commissioning ceremony of a state-of-the-art GRNMA secretariat and guest house at Pusu-Namongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region. 

Mrs Ofori-Ampofo called on the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, to as a matter of urgency, post the 2020 batch of nurses and midwives who were still “languishing” at home. 

“They need to be employed to support the system as others continue to leave. We need to make immediate efforts to boost the training of professional nurses at the diploma and degree levels, to address the eminent shortfalls which are likely soon. 

“As we continue to talk about this, ultimately, the GRNMA calls for the stoppage of the axillary nursing programmes in Ghana, because empirical evidence available has come to show, and continues to show that the patient is safest in the hands of highly skilled nurses and midwives,” Mrs Ofori-Ampofo said. 

She noted that it was important for the training of more nurses at the diploma and degree levels and stressed that the GRNMA’s call was to have the auxiliary programme stopped. 

Mrs Ofori-Ampofo insisted that all Ghanaians deserved to have safe and quality nursing and midwifery care and used the occasion to admonish members of the Association to continue providing the best care to their patients. 

“Ensure professionalism in every activity performed on the patient, and maintain standards as required for all procedures, this is very important,” she advised. 

The GRNMA President was in the company of the First Vice President of the Association, Mr Samuel Alagkora Akolgo, Mr Daniel Attah-Tuffour, Second Vice President, and Dr David Tenkorang Twum, General Secretary among other national executives. 

The Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, who chaired the function, said nursing was a calling [and] “If you are not tuned for nursing, do not go into it because you want employment.” 

According to him, some people were in the nursing profession due to lack of jobs, and that translated into their output, and urged nurses and midwives to sacrifice to save lives. 

“As all of us are appealing that you should have good salaries, we still think that you should also exercise restraint when you decide to declare strike actions because by the time you would have been offered your money, some lives would have been lost and you cannot save those lives,” he said. 

The Tongraan, who is also a member of the Council of State for the Upper East Region, appealed to nurses and midwives, who wished to leave the country to exercise restraint, stay back and serve the country. 

The Upper East Regional Chairman of the Association, Mr Thomas Lambon thanked the national leadership of the Association for facilitating the construction of the secretariat and guest house project and reiterated the need for members to stay united.