FOMENA NURSES SCHOOL HOUSING PROJECT NEEDS REACTIVATION (PAGE 11)

THE Principal of the Community Health Nurses’ Training School at Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Mrs Lynda Rockson-Mante, has called on the government to complete the school’s abandoned accommodation project to help ease the acute accommodation problem it is facing.
She said the structure that housed 50 students in 2005, now housed 603 students, adding that a greater part of the school’s infrastructure which had been abandoned could be reactivated to cater for the rapid growth of the school population.
Mrs Rockson-Mante, who made the call at the school’s maiden matriculation, noted that 64 per cent of the first-year students were non-resident.
She said the vision of the school was to make it a premier, as well as one of academic excellence in a healthy environment in the training of community health nurses to give quality-driven health care.
However, she said, there were many problems such as encroachment on school land, lack of water and overcrowding, among other things.
Mrs Rockson-Mante stressed the need for all stakeholders to support and re-affirm their support and commitment to the development of the school as the government alone could not be burdened with all those problems.
Rev. Veronica Darko, Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Nurses and Midwives Council, advised the students to always let whatever they learnt to reflect in their dealing with the patient or client.
She said their role in the healthcare delivery chain was preventive by nature and as such they should be proactive in their approach to issues by going out to the community and finding out how to prevent communicable diseases.
Rev Darko urged the matriculants to act professionally by bringing on board good interpersonal relationship and relate to patients as humans and not objects.
“A Community Health Nurse who is well respected by the public is the one who is decent, knowledgeable, skilful and in whose hands clients feel comfortable, secure and relaxed. The clients of such a person recover with little or no effort,” she said.
Mr Kofi Opoku Manu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, re-echoed the government’s preparedness to honour its promise to the people and entreated all and sundry to rally behind it to ensure quality manpower development in the health sector.
“The government will certainly create the enabling environment that will usher the vision of the school into reality. And you can be assured that the development of this very institution is at the heart of the government and the Ashanti Regional Administration. Positive steps would be taken to ensure that resources are provided to steer the school to match with its motto ‘Excellence, our Hallmark,” he assured.
Nana Sarfo Agyeman III, chief of Ahensan-Adansi and chairperson for the occasion, recounted the history of the project over 30 years ago.
She said the traditional council would always assist the school.
Nana Agyeman suggested that the accommodation problem facing the school be tackled first before thinking of constructing a fence.