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Mr Felix Nyante, the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, has expressed concern about the spate of examination malpractices at the various health training institutions, describing it “as worrying”.

“It is unfortunate that some of your colleagues see cheating during examinations as the only way to pass and I wish to advise all prospective candidates of the Council’s examinations that any candidate found culpable would be dealt with in accordance with our rules and regulations for dealing with licensing examinations malpractices,” he said.

Mr Nyante was addressing an induction ceremony for newly qualified nurses and midwives from the Northern belt, at Tamale, for a total of 1,882 nurses and midwives.

He said it was important for students to study hard and pass all examinations instead of resorting to cheating because cheating would not serve the best interest of students.

He appealed to the newly inducted nurses to accept postings to places their services were most needed and mentioned the Yendi Hospital where retired nurses had been reengaged, as an area of concern, which needed urgent attention for midwives to ensure quality healthcare delivery.

He said for the first time in the Council’s history, an awards scheme had been established to reward excellence in the Council’s licensing examinations but expressed regret that no student from any of the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions’ Health Training Institutions won any of the awards.

Mr Nyante said the Council had seen some transformation with changing its name from the Nurses and Midwives Council of Ghana to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana, while the logo and motto had also been changed.

Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, Northern Regional Minister, attributed the refusal of some health workers to accept postings to needy but rural communities to administrative lapses in the health sector, which must be addressed.

He explained that those who were going through the induction ceremony nationwide were 6,934, saying if the Administration had the mandate it would have filled the vacancies in its area with its share of inductees.

He said the era when women used marriage as an excuse not to be posted to work far away from their husbands were over saying, “It is high time husbands followed their wives to their areas of work”.

He advised health personnel not to become agents of politicians by doing open politics at work places, which according to him, would bring divisions and acrimony at work.

“You are all allowed to join a political party of your choice but don’t extend it to the work place,” he advised.