Internal brain drain threatens health sector - Nurse

Tamale, Jan. 28, GNA - Mr. William Abitto, Acting President of the
Nurse Practitioners Group of the Ghana Registered Nurses' Association,
has called on the government to pay more attention to the internal
brain drain in health delivery to sustain the sector.
He observed that the government's attention to stem the external
brain drain to the neglect of addressing the internal brain drain
among health professionals in the country was likely to collapse the
sector.
He said: "For instance, health professionals trained with the
taxpayers' money to man the health institutions are now drifting to
the NGOs because of the bureaucratic tendencies in the placement of
such professionals on the right job description and salaries
categories".
Mr. Abitto made the call at a general meeting of the Nurse
Practitioners in Tamale on Friday to raise concerns about the undue
delay in grade definition, job description, and placement and salary
scale, as well as career progression for its members.The University
for Development Studies (UDS) School of Medicine and Health Sciences
in September 2001 introduced a two-year Diploma in Nurse Practitioners
Programme in partnership with the Okanagan University College, Canada.
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded the
programme.Mr. Abitto said since the inception of the programme, 57
diplomates had passed out, while 29 students were currently pursuing
the Nurse Practitioners programme at the UDS.
The programme, he said, was to equip nurses with additional
advanced academic education and clinical experience to develop
competencies.These would enable them to assess, diagnose, order and
interpret diagnostic tests, initiate treatment including health care
management, therapeutic interventions and prescribe medications in
accordance with the statutory and regulatory standards.The Acting
President said it was rather unfortunate that the placement of
graduates of the programme was yet to be streamlined.
He said: "Unlike the Nurse Practitioners programme, nurses on
programmes at the University of Ghana, Legon and the University of
Cape Coast, are granted promotions after completion of their academic
programmes".He said even though the Human Resource Policies and
Strategies for the Health Sector document states among others
provisions that: "Any nurse who pursues a course of study or academic
programme for more than a year is entitled to the award of two
incremental credits, as well as salary adjustment and promotion upon
successful completion of such course".
Mr. Abitto said, while Nurse Practitioner graduates had been
complementing the efforts of the few doctors/nurses in the provision
of primary healthcare in regional, district and other health
institutions across the country that lacked critical staff, they had
not benefited from this provision.Dr. Elias Sory, Northern Regional
Director of Health said the Nurse Practitioners programme was a carbon
copy of that of the Canadian Health Services, which needed to be
restructured to suit the needs and aspiration of the country's health
sector to enhance quality health care.He said the gaps existing in the
health sector had been created because of the training patterns, which
had not been in the best interest of the country.He noted the high
population growth rate of the country and said training programmes
must be streamlined to cope with the challenge."The human resource
planning should take into consideration the growth rate and the needs
of the country," he added.
28 Jan. 07