The Akyem Oda Community Nursing Training College has celebrated its 60th anniversary in a colourful ceremony.
The principal of the school Mr. Jones Abeka Baah, in is speech stated that the future of the Community Nursing Training College can be bright in the coming years if they are aided with the necessary infrastructure and logistics as support from the Ministry of Health.
“As we celebrate the 60th anniversary, we are proud to say that we have also contributed significantly to the development of a public health system in Ghana by training over twenty thousand (20,000) nurses who are currently working dilegently in various health facilities throughout the country with some even on retirement,” he said.
To reflect on the current flagship registered Public Health Nursing program introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana, he humbly pleaded that the Ministry of Health considers and changes the name of the college from Community Nursing Training College to College of Public Health Training College.
He also pleaded with the Ministry to replace the thirty two years old bus which was donated to the college by the Japanese government in 1989.
According to him they always feel embarrassed by frequent break downs ,which sometimes occur in the middle of the road while students are on being transported for clinicals lessons.
The Deputy Minister for Health, Hon. Tina Naa Ayele Mensah, expressed joy for being part of the celebrations.
She expressed her appreciation to the authorities of the college for the opportunity granted her to deliver a speech at the program adding that the World Health Organization has a responsibility to aid Health Training Institutions.
“As a critical sector of the economy the Ministry of Health’s mandate is to seek to the improvement of health statuses of all the people living in the country there by, contributing to government vision of universal health coverage and a healthy population,” she said.
Hon. Tina Naa Ayele Mensah said currently there are eighty nice Nursing Training Colleges in the country and this colleges are running various courses covering such fields of study as Nursing, Midwifery, Allied Health, Mental Health,Public Health and so on.
She hinted that the colleges are gradually being resourced to give the best of health training education to the standard that would match any around the globe.
She promised to ensure that the school receives the necessary assistance from government to keep the college running smoothly and efficiently.
The Community Health Nursing Training College was established in March 1962 by the then President of the Republic of Ghana Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with support from the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Council and then DCE Hon. Kwame Kwakye popularly known as DC Kwakye.
The land on which the school was built was a plantation but upon the traditional council’s request, it was given for the establishment of the college.
The college was the second community nursing training school to be opened in the country after Tamale Nursing Training College.
The school which began in the year 1962 with a student capacity of seventeen (17) Female Middle School Leaving Certificate graduates can now boast of over a thousand (1000) students.
The World Health Organisation appointed the first set of tutors for the college.
The college in collaboration with Tamale Nursing Training College trains community health nurses for 7years till the third institution was established at Ho in the Volta Region and later the fourth also being established at Winneba in the Central Region.
In the year 2005, a new cader of community health known as Registered Community Nursing Diploma in Community Nursing was established in Akyem Oda and Winneba before it was rolled out to other Nursing Colleges.
Akyem Community Nursing Training College has so far admmited seventeen(17) different batches of Diploma students since 2005.
Additionally, in 2020 the college commenced a two year Post Basic Midwifery program and enrolled nurses leading to awarding of Diploma Certificate in Midwifery by the University of Cape Coast(UCC).
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders renamed the program in 2021, currently the College has admitted the first batch of two hundred and fifty (250) candidates who are pursuing a three years Diploma program.
Report by Samuel Quao