Upscaling and upgrading the training of nurses and midwives in Northern Ghana

Sector

Health

Budget

The maximum budget for this project € 2,350,000.

Organisations

This project has been developed by the University for Development Studies (UDS). The tender for this project expired on 14 June 2011. Nuffic has awarded this tender to CINOP, which has formed a consortium with Leiden University of Applied Sciences, with support from Kwama Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and North-West University (NWU) in South Africa.

Project description

This project aims to strengthen the capacity of six Nursing Training Colleges (NTCs) and Midwifery Training Schools and Colleges (MTSs), so that they can effectively manage, teach, implement, and evaluate revised curricula for (paediatric) nurses and midwives and substantially increase the number of their graduates.

Due to the geographical setting and limited career perspectives, it is a challenge to attract and retain qualified medical staff to Northern Ghana. This project should improve professional opportunities, including training as nurse educators.

The specific aims of the project are:

• to help management acquire the organisational capacity to fulfil their mandates and missions as teaching institutions, and to offer the improved training programmes in a recognised, standardised and sustainable way;
• to help the NTCs and MTSs run cost-effective training programmes for Diploma level midwives and nurses;
• to help the NTCs/MTSs provide relevant education for nurses and midwives using innovative teaching and learning methodologies, through strengthened teaching capacity.

Northern Ghana is deprived in a number of ways in comparison with the South of the country. There is a chronic shortage of nurses and midwives in most health facilities, largely as a result of a lack of sufficient education and training opportunities. There is also an acute shortage of qualified teachers and trainers at the colleges in charge of nursing and midwife training, and at the affiliated hospitals.

The shortage in the offer of health care is particularly severe in the rural areas among farmer populations, with women and children being most vulnerable. Filling these gaps in Northern Ghana is critical to lowering staggering maternal and child mortality rates and to the realisation of MDG 4 (Child Mortality) and 5 (Maternal Health). Improving the quality of health care delivery is also a crucial prerequisite to economic development.