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K’dua Nurses & Midwifery School launches golden jubilee

The 50th anniversary celebration of the Koforidua Nurses and Midwives Training School was launched at the weekend.

On the theme, “Celebrating 50 Years: Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery Education”, the anniversary has a number of activities to be carried out, including blood donations, public lectures and symposium, medical screening, gospel rock show, games, a musical concert and a durbar.

In a speech, the Principal of the school, Mrs Doreen-Ayensu, revealed that although the school was established in 1964 as a training centre  for ward assistants, midwives were also trained right from its inception.

Diploma courses

Mrs Ayensu revealed that the school currently offered diploma courses in both general nursing and midwifery and that many of its products had continued to work hard and were currently occupying top positions in the health sector.

Mrs Doreen-Ayensu was of the view that the success story of the school had to be told and it was in that direction that the institution would be celebrating its golden jubilee to showcase its accomplishments despite numerous challenges.

Challenges

The principal, who named some of the challenges as inadequate classrooms, hostel accommodation for the male students, residential accommodation for staff and security measures to ward off intruders, called for support in providing such facilities.

The Minister of Health, Mrs Sherry Ayittey, who graced the occasion, praised the school for its enviable record of producing over 5,000 nurses and 1,900 midwives. 

Failures

The minister, however, expressed concern about the high rate of failure  of students at the professional examination conducted by the Nurses and Midwifery Council, and indicated that although it was encouraging that the Koforidua school had been recording a pass rate of between 50 and 81 per cent, there was still more work to be done.

Mrs Sherry Ayittey said varied factors contributed to the high failure rate, and indicated that the government would play its part in solving the problem.

Oaths

She reminded the students of their oaths, which included service to humanity, practising with conscience and dignity, making the health of patients the priority and non- consideration of religion, nationality, race, politics or social standing in the course of their duties.

With regard to the proliferation of nursing schools in the country, the minister said much as the government encouraged public-private partnership, under no circumstance would any such school operate without the minimum accreditation standard, adding, “all who want to set up such schools should follow due processes of accreditation from the Nurses and Midwifery Council”.

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