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Quashigah
on nurses,midwives and maternal mortality
Ho, Aug 1, Ghanadot/GNA - Major Courage Quashigah (RTD),
Minister of Health, has urged general nurses, as front
liners in clinical care, to support midwives in the battle
to reduce maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.
He suggested for example that the nurses on their own
volition should sensitize young women on the physiological
changes in the body and psychological state needed to go
through successful childbirth.
Major Quashigah was addressing the 5th National Delegates
Conference of the General Nurses Group in Ho on Thursday.
The five-day programme is under the theme Reducing Maternal
and Infant mortality and morbidity.
Major Quashigah urged nurses to target men for thorough
education on the issue since many men were reneging on their
responsibilities towards their pregnant partners.
He said nurses must respond in a professional manner to the
needs of their clients at all times, show empathy and not to
disdain them.
Major Quashigah expressed worry about the increasing
incidents of non-communicable diseases among Ghanaians,
attributing the trend to unhealthy lifestyles.
Mrs May Osae-Addae, Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), listed
inadequate sense of accountability and urgency, poor
attitude toward clients, poor referral systems, poor work
culture as among weaknesses "seen these days in health
institutions".
She said these had impacted negatively on the quality of
health delivery as seen in increase in morbidity and
mortality in the health institutions.
Ms Veronica Darko, Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives
Council, expressed worry about the public perception of
nurses as haughty.
She said pressures of work might have made nurses to forget
that bathing and feeding of patients were their
responsibilities, and warned them that they could be taken
to court for dereliction of responsibilities.
Dr Andrew Arde-Acquah said even though the low numbers of
health professional put pressures on them, quality of
service must not be compromised.
GNA
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