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The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has asked newly registered nurses and midwives to be cautious and innovative in their search for knowledge in order not to remain stale in their profession.

“It is obvious that being a health worker today is a very tall order, given that human health related issues are varied and have undergone tremendous change.

Mr Agyeman-Manu who was speaking at the induction of newly registered nurses and midwives from the Southern belt of the country, into the nursing profession, in Accra yesterday stated that the health sector cannot succeed without research into phenomena in healthcare settings.

The inductees are part of about 6,000 newly qualified and registered general nurses and midwives, community health nurses and registered mental health nurses, who completed their training from various nursing training institutions across the country last year.

“Nursing and midwifery is a growing field and research into the field has a tremendous influence on current and future professional nursing practice , thus rendering it an essential component of the educational process would be of great benefit,” he said.

The minister observed that improving health systems in the country did not only require having more nurses but training professionals who are better prepared to care for people with multiple chronic conditions in all settings.

Mr Agyeman-Manu stressed the need for the training institutions to produce more preventive and specialised nurses saying “it is sad to note that Ghana has only a few specialised nurses and this has made it difficult to reach all persons who need specialised health care”.

He said government will henceforth work hard to ensure that no trained and registered nurse stays at home idle after training for two or three years.

“The government is committed to employing newly qualified nurses and midwives in good time, this year we have employed a little over 16,000 of your senior colleagues and we are not done yet, we are in the process of recruiting about 260 of them before the end of the year,” he said.

He reiterated government’s commitment to ensure that it trains more preventive and specialised nurses to improve on quality service and health care systems in the country to ensure Universal Health Coverage.

“Ghana has a target to contribute to the global achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, we need well trained nurses and midwives to work with optimum commitment and professionalism to contribute to the global reduction of maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births, and end preventable deaths,” he said.

Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Dean of the School of Languages, University of Ghana, urged the inductees to work with diligence and ensure that their successes does not depend on their certificates but on attitude, determination, and perseverance to make a difference in their field of work.

“Develop yourself intellectually and practically if you graduated with a certificate, plan to do a diploma, if you have a diploma now plan for a degree, if you have a degree now, plan for a post-graduate programme.”

She also urged them to be professional, truthful and devoted to duty, irrespective of race, gender, religion or any affiliations.