5,000 YEA nurse assistants will erode confidence in health sector – UER Chairman, GRNMA

Thomas Lambon, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) is worried that the recruitment of some 5,000 SHS graduates to support nurses at CHPS compounds could reduce confidence within the health sector.

Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today, August 24, 2022, Mr. Lambon explained that it was unconscionable that while some 20,000 nurses continued to stay home, the government through the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) had decided to engage some 5,000 SHS graduates to support nurses at the CHPS level across the country.

Even worse, according to Mr. Lambon, is the fact that these individuals would be trained for only 3 weeks. With these factors in mind, the confidence in the CHPS system within communities across the country could be hit significantly.

“We are people who are licensed and we already have our assistants. They are there, over 10,000 of them.”

“What are they coming to do? What are they going to take? What training will they receive? You, as a client, should feel confident when you meet a nurse at a hospital who wants to take your history, tell the nurse what you are suffering from and the problems you face.”

“We have standards we go through. I do not want a situation where we are pushing the nursing care into the ground,” Mr. Lambon insisted.