The Talensi District Director of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Maxwell Chilembalem has indicated that the senior high school graduates who were trained by the Ghana Health Service and engaged by the YEA to support nurses at the CHPS level are ready for deployment.
He said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
“They are yet to be deployed to the various CHPS compounds. The training period was for 5 days. [For the Upper East Region, the number of SHS graduates trained] is a little over 300.”
“By next week or next 2 weeks, they are likely to be deployed to the various CHPS compounds across the length and breadth of the country,” he said.
Mr. Chilembalem explained that the distribution of the individuals would cut across all 15 municipalities and districts in the Upper East Region. They are expected to receive Ghc500 per month for the 2-year engagement period.
Subsequently, the YEA is expected to engage some other persons under the Youth in Policing, Youth in Fire Service and Youth in Teaching modules.
The engagement of support staff for nurses by YEA became a vexed issue.
The Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNA), Thomas Labon berated the government on its plans to recruit about 5000 Senior High School (SHS) graduates to help nurses on CHPS compounds across the country.
YEA argued that the assistants would help nurses with services, including recording medical history and symptoms, conducting physical examinations, and providing simple bedside care to patients, mostly in rural communities.
Jonathan Abdallah Salifu, the Deputy Upper East Regional Director of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) allayed the fears of many regarding the engagement of some 5,000 Senior High School graduates to assist nurses at the various CHPS compounds in the country.
“They are basically to help the professional nurses in the various wards or health facilities. In simple terms, they are regarded as errand boys and girls. What they do is take instructions from the nurses. As part of their training, they are not trained to inject. They are not even trained to administer medicines.”
“Just like I said, probably [they’re] just to take vital statistics and records keeping,” he insisted.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
