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Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Felix Nyante, has said the introduction of telehealth into the healthcare delivery system under the utilisation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution would make nurses and midwives more relevant.

He said the Council believes firmly the digitisation of health systems is a key component in achieving the Universal Health Coverage and rapid attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SGDs).

Mr Nyante was speaking during the fifth Congregation of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) at their main Campus in Ho, where some 786 graduates have completed their programmes of studies.

The students have graduated in three batches due to the COVID-9 pandemic in Nursing and Midwifery, Public health, Medicine, and Basic and Biomedical Sciences.

He said the 4IR has a role to play in improving the reach, impact, and efficiency of modern healthcare and delivering patient-centred services to disease prevention, health promotion, rehabilitation, and palliative care without the risk.

He said luckily for the country, smart hospitals are being built to optimise automated processes on an ICT environment of interconnected assets to improve existing patient care procedures with workers necessarily being versed in utlising applications to interface healthcare delivery.

Mr Nyante indicated the Nursing and Midwifery Council has begun the transformation to digitise its operations by introducing nursing informatics as part of the reviewed curricular for the training of its students exposing them to standards.

He said, “E-nursing process is being piloted with 10 selected district hospitals and the University of Ghana School of Nursing and Midwifery,” towards eliminating the laborious processes.

He said staff of the Council are undergoing routine training modules towards becoming IT compliant and urged the graduands never to relent on acquiring new skills that add up to their professional calling.

The Registrar said the Council was assisting nursing and Midwifery regulatory bodies in neighbouring countries to streamline and strengthen their operations with countries such as the Gambia, Liberia and Malawi have visited to understudy its operations as it rolls out indexing, registration, and licensing examinations digitally.

Professor John Gyapong, Vice-Chancellor of UHAS said the University’s population continues to grow with a current student enrolment standing at 5,717 for the 2019/20 academic year compared to the 4,989 of 2018/19.

He said plans are afoot for the UHAS to continue to offer postgraduate programmes in Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in medical imaging and Master of Public Health (MPH), awaiting accreditation and regulatory approval.

He expressed gratitude to the governments of Ghana and China for partnering for the commencement of the second phase of the UHAS infrastructural projects in earnest to provide higher e3ducation in health through teaching and learning.

Prof Gyapong said management of UHAS recently completed some residential facilities for students, which would be available to accommodate the products of the Senior High School with others at various stages of completion.

He called for the facilitation of processes for the passage of the Executive Instrument for the finalisation of the acquisition of the land for the Hohoe Campus of School of Public Health from the Traditional authorities of Fodome.

He urged the graduands to practice their chosen profession with great confidence and humility.

Justice Mr Jones Mawulorm Dotse, Chairman of Council of UHAS, observed the University is not only producing professionals to the healthcare delivery system country but its products stand tall.

He urged the graduands to avoid yielding to pressure to commit crime or violence during the December polls.