Military nurses urged to specialise in other areas
The Director of the Ghana Armed Forces Medical Services, Col. Vida Otoo, has stressed the need for military nurses to specialise in critical care of the aged, emergency and orthopedic care among other areas.
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According to her, nursing in military should move away from generalisation to specialisations such as geriatric and accident cases that would enable them to deliver to the expectation of their clients and the nation at large.
Col. Otoo was speaking at the maiden edition of Military Nightingale’s Week celebration in Accra.
“The twenty first century nurse is expected to use scientific methods in the provision of service, in our time, we have better and more sophisticated diagnostic equipment and gadget for treatment”, she stressed.
The celebration dubbed: “Nursing in the twenty–first century, the role of the military nurse”, was used to present citations to dedicated and long serving retired nurses and midwives who were commissioned into the Ghana Armed Forces medical services in 1957 and 1960.
They included Capt Margaret Abavana, Capt Cecilia Beausoleil, Lt Col.Doris Butter-Aggrey, Capt Dora P. Koomson, Capt Matilda Twum Barimah, Col. Faustina Yebuah, Lt Col. Edith Tamakloe and Lt Col. Christiane Debrah.
As part of the week’s celebration, a workshop was also organised to equip the nurses on the knowledge of their profession.
Lamenting on the services of the hospital, she said, there were some challenges confronting the 21st century nurse which included ageing, urbanisation, emergence and re-emergence of new communicable diseases.
She added that clients now had knowledge about diseases and treatment options due to advancement in technology.
The military, she said, would like to take up the challenge of introducing some of those programmes into the training schools saying, “this will involve scholarship for tutors to train in these areas in order to run such programmes in our training schools”.
“Our predecessors whom we are privileged to have with us today have been able to provide quality care in the face of similar challenges, today, we salute these gallant colleagues and hope it will be a motivation for us the young ones to give our best to society”, she said.
“Florence Nightingale took the lamp which represent light, hope and joy and sent it to the wounded, to the physically and emotionally wounded on the battle field.I am, therefore, challenging you to equally take the lamp and let it burn where you find yourself offering services” Col. Otoo stressed.
By Jennifer Ansah/Daily Graphic/Ghana