Diaspora Nursing Alliance to bridge gap between nurses in Ghana and diaspora

The Ghanaian-Diaspora Nursing Alliance (G-DNA) has been launched in Accra with an aim of serving as a bridge between Ghanaian nurses living and working in Ghana, and those in the diaspora.

The Alliance, which has the backing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (GCNM), the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), and the Ghana Health Service (GHS), will also help its members in Ghana connect with their counterparts in the diaspora.

Speaking during the launch at the University of Ghana, Prof. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, the President of G-DNA, who is also an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Public Health in Baltimore, said that it is hope that this alliance will advance the work of nurses in the country.

“The mission of the Ghanaian-Diaspora Nursing Alliance is to create local to global collaboration between nurses in Ghana and their counterparts in the diaspora. So, we hope to connect all Ghanaian nurses, wherever they are – nurses who have Ghana in their DNA, to come back home to advance nursing and healthcare in Ghana,” she said.

Speaking about the unique opportunities this alliance provides for its members, she said that they are first working at putting together the specific challenges of nurses in Ghana so that they can properly streamline how to solve those concerns and shortfalls.

She therefore called on all nurses of Ghanaian origin but who are in the diaspora to come on board to make it a success.

“At this stage, we are at the process of listening and learning, and understanding what are the unique challenges that nurses in Ghana face. And that is why we have breakout groups as part of the launch today, to hear from the nurses, and we’ll take this information and analyse some of the feedback that we’ve received, to use this information to design programs, webinars, conferences, seminars.

“And some of those things would be offered in person, and some of them will be virtual. And so, if there are nurses in the diaspora who have training in different areas, they can still contribute to this mission and help to teach their fellow Ghanaian nurses in these different areas as well,” she stressed.

Although a relatively new group, Prof Yvonne Commodore-Mensah said that the G-DNA is already a force to reckon with.

This, she explained, is because of the primary support it is already receiving from associations such as the GRNMA and the Ghana Health Service.

“We are very new; we only started about three months ago but as you can see from the attendance today, and from the presentation of the different nursing groups, we are a force to be reckoned with.

“We are new and small and we are finalising our membership structure but we already have the support of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, which has tens of thousands of members, and we hope to leverage all of these local nursing organisations, as well as other disaporan nursing organisations to come together to form this alliance, to advance nursing in Ghana,” she said.

Members of the G-DNA Executive Board are Prof Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, President and Co-Founder; Dr. Matilda Decker, Vice President and Co-Founder; Dr. Ruth-Alma Turkson-Ocran, Executive Director; Dr. Daniel Apau, Co-Director of Education; and Irene Fankah, Co-Director of Education.

The rest are Evelyn Amoako, Ghana Liaison; Thomas Hinneh, Co-Director of Research and Quality Improvement; Angela Agore, Co-Director of Research and Quality Improvement; Jacqueline Idun, Public Relations Officer; and Josephine Agyei, Social Media Manager.

The group also has a 10-member Advisory Council including Victoria Bubunyo Bam, President, Associate Professor at the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives; Eva Mensah, Director of Nursing and Midwifery Service, Ghana Health Service; Philomena Woolley, Ag. Registrar, Nursing and Midwifery Council; and David Tenkorang-Twum, Secretary, GRNMA.

The others are Florence Naab, Dean of UG School of Nursing and Midwifery; Nancy Reynolds, Associate Dean of Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Center for Global Initiatives; Veronica Dzomeku, Dean, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Depth of Nursing and Midwifery, KNUST; Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, President, GRNMA; Prof. Lydia Aziato, Vice Chancellor, University of Health and Allied Sciences; and Hannah Acquah, Rector, Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives.

AE/MA