Following government’s decision to re-introduce the nursing trainee allowance scheme, it is also making plans to re-introduce the Nursing Trainee Quota system for nursing training institutions. The new directive will see public and private institutions accredited to train nurses in the country, reduce their intake by almost 1, 600.
The NPP Government on Wednesday announced the reintroduction of the quota system which was scrapped by the Mahama government together with the trainee allowances. According to the Ministry of Health, this will allow training institutions to produce nurses to meet the demands of the health sector, thus reducing unemployment.
Despite the concerns that the new directive will result in a shortage of nurses nationwide, This move was also supported by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association. The body threw its weight behind the directive because according to them, training institutions don’t have the capacity to cater for the large numbers they were admitting.
Since there was no limit in admission, as there was no stipulated trainee allowance, trainee schools were less restricting in their admissions -a situation which saw all Tom, Dick, and Harry into the system. According to the President of the association, Kwaku Asante Krobea this was due to the pressure from massive number of candidates that we’re putting in applications and also from other stakeholder institutions.
Kwaku Asante Krobea who was speaking on Citi News said that this unrestrained process often times resulted in situations where some individuals had completed the training but they lacked the confidence to confront the situations before them.
While some have lauded new nursing quota directive, some have, however, expressed great concern over its effectiveness. Former Health Minister, Alex Sebgefia has expressed concerns over the implementation of this new directive.
According to him, it is better for the new government to continue with the initial scrapping of trainee allowances, as reintroducing it and formulating the quota system will only create difficulties in the system.
Alex Segbeifa also shed light on why the scrapping of the allowance in the first place was a good thing. He explained that former government scrapped the allowances and tried introducing the trainees to the student loan scheme to boost admissions into the health institutions.
The laws at the time prevented trainees from accessing the loan scheme. He added that they were in the process of formulating the necessary policies to enable students to access the scheme before the now opposition party lost the December 2016 elections.
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