Two hundred and thirty-five out of the 250 candidates who sat for the January 2019 Post Basic Nursing online licensing examination have passed.

The figure represents 94 per cent of the total number of candidates. 

The number comprises 68 Critical Care nurses; 59 Ophthalmic Nurses; 75 Peri-Operative nurses and 48 Public Health nurses.

This was announced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana in Accra last Tuesday and said the results were accessible online.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Registrar of the council, Mr Felix Nyante, said the results had been approved by the governing board of the council.

“Candidates are, therefore, requested to visit the Regional offices of the council from Wednesday, April 3, 2019, to obtain a result-checking scratch card to access their results online from our website- http://nmc.gov.gh or http://nmcgh.org,” he said.

Mr Nyante said those who were unsuccessful would be required to join the next batch of candidates to sit for the online licensing examination in July 2019.

He added that the online examination results of over 5,000 Nurse Assistants and Clinical and Preventive nurses were expected to be released by the middle of the month.

Rationale

On the rationale for introducing the examination, Mr Nyante explained that it formed part of the digitisation agenda of the government and was to ease the laborious processes associated with the current manual system, as well as cut down on cost, with regard to paper use, printing and distribution expenses.

“It forms part of a four-year project being undertaken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to strengthen the capacity of the council in the conduct of its licensing examination.

“It is also to strengthen the organisational capacity of the council to conduct a more efficient, effective and credible licensing examination," he added.

Mr Nyante further explained that the introduction of the e-examination in phases was to help shift the current manual system to a completely automated system of examination conducted through a web-based online examination software, which he described as a more effective and convenient system of examination.

“The first 374 candidates from the College of Health Sciences in Yendi, the Nursing Training College, Pantang in Accra and the Nursing Training College, Ankaful in Cape Coast wrote the first e-licensing examination in 2018,” he said.

“We want to see a situation where nurses and midwives can sit in their offices, homes and various hospitals to log onto our website and renew their licence,” he said.

Four-year project

The e-licensing examination is part of a four-year project being undertaken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to strengthen the capacity of the council in the conduct of its licensing examination.

The Netherlands Embassy has since 2014 awarded a total of Euro 1,067,250 in support of the project through the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation (NUFFIC).

The fund was to specifically help build the capacity of the senior staff on strategic management and leadership skills, as well as strengthen the capacity of the council to conduct the online licensing examination.

The capacity building component of the project was implemented in 2014 and 2015, while the online examination component was launched in 2018 with the implementation scheduled for 2019.