The Head of Public Affairs at the Youth Employment Agency, YEA, Mohammed Awal has maintained that the use of SHS graduates at CHPS Compounds is not new. He stated it has been in existence since 2006 but was only halted in 2018. The SHS graduates, he explained, are given a three-week training to equip them for the assignment.
Reacting to concerns raised by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, GRNMA, Mr. Awal insisted that the practice is not a novelty and expressed surprise that this is becoming an issue at this time.
The GRNMA has questioned the decision by the government, through the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), to use graduates from the Senior High Schools (SHS) to provide assistance to nurses at the Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds in the country.
In a statement the GRNMA issued on Monday, 22 August 2022 the association noted that: “Indeed the work in these rural communities can be quite daunting for CHNs to the extent that they can hardly have time to attend to their personal and career development issues. They therefore require assistance but not from Senior High School (SHS) graduates.”
“In total there is a backlog of over 20,000 nurses and midwives of all cadres belonging to 2019, 2020, 2021 batches also awaiting employment,” the statement added.
The GRNMA says the policy is not well thought through and therefore the Association cannot support it.
The YEA spokesperson however said these were the people who used to be called Kufuor nurses or Zoom nurses, to buttress his point that they have always been in the system.
SOURCE : theGhanaianVoice
