Nurses, midwives sign MoU with CoRe Programme

The COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience (CoRe) Programme has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association to equip its members with requisite skills to build resilience and to deal with the socio-economic effects of the pandemic.

The arrangement has been initiated to mitigate the traumatising effects that healthcare givers have to endure in their line of duty.

At a ceremony in Accra yesterday where the MoU with the CoRe Programme was signed, the President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Mrs Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, intimated that the collaboration could not have come at a right time, stressing that nurses and midwives were the professional group that needed the CoRe Programme the most.

“With 65,000 active members at the frontline of the COVID-19 battle, and 67 per cent being females, nurses are probably the biggest hit and the most disrupted professionals by the effects of this unprecedented pandemic,” Mrs Ofori-Ampofo said.

CoRe

The CoRe Programme is an intervention initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation, in partnership with Solidaridad and the MasterCard Foundation.

Since June this year, the programme has been providing support to young people aged between 18 and 35 years by equipping them with relevant skills to enable them to survive and thrive during and after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The programme’s interventions are delivered through three main avenues, namely e-learning, e-mentoring and e-counselling.

Impact of COVID-19

Mrs Ofori-Ampofo welcomed the collaboration, saying nurses typically spent most contact hours with COVID-19 patients, and that as a result, about 800 of their members had been infected, while two had lost their lives.

She added that this year, many of their members were traumatised by their experiences which included displacement, rejection by family members, and in some instances, disruption to marriages /relationships due to several hours spent away from home.

“Even though COVID-19 is on the decline, the effects on nurses are being felt now more than ever. I am optimistic about the potential impact of the CoRe Programme on our members. I will be absolutely delighted if Springboard will not just onboard our members but target specific support to help us come through.

“In the end, it will be Ghana that wins. If the nation has health professionals who are themselves healthy, resilient and ready to face the future, it will be for the betterment of the country as a whole,” Mrs Ofori-Ampofo said.

Tailored response

The Executive Director of the Springboard Roadshow Foundation, Mrs Comfort Ocran, expressed excitement about the prospects of the partnership.

She highlighted the positive impact the CoRe programme had already had on several thousands of Ghanaian youth.

Mrs Ocran revealed that a number of nurses and midwives were already participating in the CoRe programme as individuals.

“The institutional arrangement with the association will now allow us to deliver more tailored responses and to measure the specific impact,” she said.