Diploma courses in nursing begins in the middle of this year

Kumasi, Jan. 19, GNA - Diploma courses at the Nurses Training Colleges (NTCs) will begin in the middle of this year, Mrs Alice Donkor, acting Principal of the Kumasi Nurses Training College of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), has disclosed. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Monday, she said plans were far advanced for the upgrading of structures and facilities at the various nurses training colleges by the Ministry of Health for the diploma courses to take off.

Mrs Donkor said the colleges would be affiliated to the College of Health Sciences (CHS) of the University of Ghana, Legon, for the running of the three-year course. The move, she said, formed part of measures to curtail the increasing number of nurses who leave the country to further their education in their profession most of who do not return.

Besides, Mrs Donkor said it would also enhance and ensure efficiency in the nursing profession, and that the more the nurses were well trained, the better they will deliver. She said in line with this development, the administration of the Kumasi NTC was constituting a Board of Governors to oversee the rehabilitation and upgrading of structures at the college.

Mrs Donkor expressed regret that many students who applied to the college could not gain admission due to the limited facilities. For example, out of 1,500 people who applied for admission last year, only 400 gained admission due to the lack of accommodation and other facilities. She called on student nurses to take their studies seriously since the college authorities would sanction any student who failed to make the required grades in their programmes.