School of Nursing to introduce electives

Published in the Daily Graphic on 3/06/2010, pg 13

Story: Matilda Attram
The School of Nursing of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Ghana (UG) is to introduce electives in its courses to enable nurses to specialise in different subject areas.
Starting with Paediatric Nursing as an elective, this decision is to permit persons who gain admission to the school to specialise in courses of their interest under the nursing programme for quality delivery of health services.
The acting Dean for the School of Nursing of the College of Health Sciences, UG, Dr Ernestina Donkor, announced this at an open day ceremony organised for second cycle institutions on academic programmes and career prospects in Accra.
The event was part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the college, held on the theme: 'A Decade of Achievements and Future Prospects'.
It was to interact with students of second cycle institutions who had interest in furthering their education with the college.
????The event also aimed at exhibiting the courses of the schools under the college and their differences.?????
Other activities of the anniversary include open lectures and a science conference.
The college currently has seven schools, all of which offer different courses.
They are the Medical School, Dental School, School of Allied Sciences, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, School of Pharmacy and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
Dr Donkor said although the school had produced competent personalities in the delivery of health services, the country would improve on its health sector when students were allowed to specialise in areas of their interest to help them deliver better services.
She explained that the school, since its establishment, offered general knowledge in nursing, which constituted all the areas of the course.
"We offer general nursing for all, where students go through all the areas under the nursing course," she said.
According to her, the school currently offered three programmes — the Degree of Science (DSC) Nursing, Master of Science Nursing and Master of Philosophy Nursing.
Addressing the gathering, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences of UG, Professor Aaron Lante Lawson, indicated that most students who applied for admission to the college opted only for the School of Medicine due to the lack of information on the others.
"There are different categories under the health sciences apart from medicine but most people have the wrong notion that only medicine goes into health science," he said.
He stated that although the idea of health constituted medicine, the area of health sciences was a broad area which had a high range of specialities.
He further explained that despite the different areas under health sciences, there was the need for individuals to commit themselves in their different areas, as well as work together to achieve a common goal.
"Although each area has its specialities, we all work together to achieve the aim of delivering quality healthcare services in the country and beyond," he added.
He emphasised the need for students to seek information on the courses and programmes of interest before making choices.
He made known the intention of the college to extend its education to other parts of the country.
Professor Lawson called on parents to refrain from forcing their children to make wrong choices of programmes of their interest, but should help them make the right choices.
Other heads of the different schools of the college took participants through admission and requirements processes, and explained the courses they offered to them.
Participating second cycle institutions included Wesley Girls Senior High School (SHE), Manya Krobo SHS, St Peter's SHS and the Gomoa T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS.