Let's stem the tide of indiscipline, health training institutions urged

Dr Frank Nyonator, Director of Human Resource of Ministry of Health has called on principals of health training institutions to do their best and help stem the menace of indiscipline creeping in their institutions. �Human resource directorate of the Ministry of health will be solidly behind you if you take the right decision that will ensure indiscipline is stemmed out in various health institutions�, he said. Dr Nyonator, who is also Advisor on Health Systems Strengthening, made the call during the opening ceremony of a workshop for professional nursing and midwifery academic leadership for principals of health training institutions in Accra on Monday. He said though indiscipline is a problem found in every aspect of the society, given the pivotal role of health training institutions, there is the need to tackle the menace at the training level. Citing truancy, disrespect and general lukewarm attitude towards academic work as the main disciplinary problems confronting the health training institutions, Dr Nyonator said if they are not checked, it could transcend into the work place environment defeating the purpose for quality health delivery. Dr Sylvester Anemana, Chief Director of Ministry of Health, said there are instances community health nurses are expected to reach out to people in communities and yet nurses sit back at the institution waiting for clients to report to them. He said while many community health nurses remain at the institutional levels, others usually sleep at the work places during operational hours. He explained that owing to health promotional and interventions to improve quality health care, health delivery service enjoins community nurses� to move from house to house and home to home to provide family planning, antennal, maternal and postnatal education. The professionals are also expected to carry out health education on the use of antibiotics, complementary breastfeeding, dealing with referral cases and arranging for ambulances when the need arises, he said. He said results from surveys on health indicate that infant mortality rate in Ghana is 50 per cent per live births which is still very high, maternal mortality is high, many children die within the first 28 days. Dr Anemana said there is the need for the training institutions to work hard to improve the quality the human resource enable Ghana improve on working towards universal health coverage. Reverend Veronica Darko, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Nurses� and Midwives Council, appealed to the participants to employ the knowledge that would be acquired to help ensure quality health delivery in the country. She urged the participants to avoid legal tussle in the discharge of their duties saying �when the results of candidates are released they are no more your students, you cannot decide where they should go and work�. Reverend Darko called on the participants to work towards finding solutions to solve problems, but not to engage in pointing accusing fingers at others adding �let us not talk of problems but work towards addressing the challenges to enhance service delivery�. The 50 participants from Community Health Nursing (CHN) Training Schools, Health Assistant and post CHN/Health Assistant (Clinical) Midwifery Training Schools would be taken through topics like investing in people and succession planning, strategic planning, leadership styles and skills in administration and management as well as effective supervision of curriculum delivery. Consultants from the University of Cape Coast and the University of Education, Winneba are the resource personnel for the event.