Council honours nurses for excellence
Nursing is a profession in the healthcare sector that focuses on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they attain or maintain, optimal health and quality of life.
Advertisement
The profession is a calling that requires special knowledge, skill and preparation and nurses may be differentiated from other healthcare providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice.
Standards of modern nursing
Today, the standards of modern nursing is measured along the lines of the English nurse Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, who lived between 1820 and 1910, making outstanding contributions to the knowledge and improvement of public health and was obedient to God through service to the society.
In October 1854, Nightingale organised a party of 38 nurses, mostly from different religious orders for service in the Crimean War (1853–56), in which Great Britain, France, and Sardinia fought against Russian expansion in Europe. She was famous among the troops and the public as the "Lady with the Lamp" and the "Nightingale in the East."
She never really recovered from the physical strain of the Crimean War and after 1861, she rarely left her home and was confined to her bed much of the time. She died on August 13, 1910, in London, England. She was awarded the Order of Merit, in 1907.
The standard of nursing that Nightingale left for all nurses is for them to help people by offering the needed services to enhance quality health care to the society.
Two best nurses
Two nurses from the Ashanti Region, who have been adjudged best nurses by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana during the induction ceremony for newly qualified nurses and midwives for graduates in the middle belt of Ghana, and their numerous colleagues in all parts of the country, are also expected to uphold these values.
The two, Ms Amakye Akosua Abrafi and Ms Roseline Boateng Agyenim, who emerged the best nurse and midwife, respectively, during the 2013/2014 licensing examination out of 6,800 candidates, were inducted into the profession at a ceremony at Mampong in the Ashanti Region for newly qualified nurses and midwives in the middle belt of Ghana.
The middle belt comprises Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions. The first of the three-strand ceremony took place in Tamale for the Northern belt, and ended on Friday in Accra for graduates of the southern belt.
Twenty-two-year old Ms Abrafi, who attended the Agogo Nurses and Midwife Training College, was described as ‘a nurse extraordinaire’, by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana during the induction
A mother of one, Ms Agyenim, who attended the Maase Offinso Midwifery Training School made it double for the region when she was crowned the best newly inducted midwife in Ghana by the Council.
A third award winner, Ms Irene Nti Dufie, won the best practical midwife in the Ashanti Region.
Akosua and Roseline had both nurtured the ambition of becoming a nurse and a midwife respectively from childhood but went on contrasting paths to realise their cherished dreams.
Educational background
While, Akosua, a senior high school science graduate from Okuapeman Senior High School (SHS) and a native of Abompe in the Ashanti Region had it comparatively easy to the nursing training college, her counterpart, Roseline, had to battle it on her own as a private student to make it through SHS.
Although married with a child, Roseline defied all odds to attend evening classes for three years to be able to get the SHS certificate to qualify her for the training college.
She said her strength and indeed backbone had been her husband, Mr Gabriel Owusu Anane, a businessman, who encouraged her to pursue high education.
Her emotional story attracted some of the invited dignitaries and her husband to the podium, as well as some of her kinsmen from Asuta Asuafo also in the Ashanti Region to share in her glory.
The first male registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana, Mr Felix Nyante, announced that the council had introduced stringent measures to curb examination malpractice.
Among them, he said, was a special metal detector which was able to scan parts of the human body to detect foreign materials.
Also, he said, the council was to implement strictly the laws governing examination of which students could be expelled.
Advertisement
He congratulated the award winners and urged them to continue to work hard to lift the image of the profession.