Making Nurses Computer Literate

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is now fully committed to ensuring that trainee nurses at all the midwifery and nurses training institutes become computer literate on completion of their study programmes.

Dr S. Kyei-Faried, Ashanti Regional Senior Medical Officer in-charge of Public Health, said the initiative was taken about two-and-half years ago when diplomas were introduced to replace certificates at the nursing training institutions.

Dr Kyei-Faried announced these at the first quarterly performance review meeting of health institutions in the Ashanti Region in Kumasi on Wednesday. The two-day meeting created a platform for health institutions to review their goals, assess them and adopt more effective mechanisms for ensuring quality deliverance of health care to the people.

Dr Kyei-Faried announced that MOH has provided computers for all the midwifery and nurses training institutions in the region and urged tutors and students to make use of them.

The Human Resource Development Unit of the Ministry had evolved plans to sponsor nurses to go for training courses that would enable them take up teaching appointments at the institutions.

Earlier in a presentation, Madam Ernestina Schandorf, Deputy Director, Nursing Services at the Mampong Midwifery Training School, complained about the inadequate number of tutors at the school, which had made the workload of the teaching staff heavy.

She said the school has 85 students with only three tutors, which does not augur well for teaching and learning.

Madam Rose Owusu Yeboah, Vice Principal of the Kumasi Nurses Training College, also cited the poor staffing as an obstacle to the progress of the college and appealed to the authorities to provide motivation packages to help attract more tutors.

According to her, with a student population of 310, there were only nine tutors with two on study leave. GNA