About 130 nurses from the Tamale and Ho Teaching hospitals are going through a sixty-day E-learning program to strengthen their capacities on public health emergencies with special attention on combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
The training which is dubbed ‘Public Health in Emergencies,” seeks to position the two teaching hospitals to deliver on their mandate as public health emergency centres.
The initiative is a collaboration between the Ho Teaching Hospital, the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Sra De La Candelaria University hospital, the Spanish College of Nursing Organization, Mujeres Por Africa, the Department of Nursing University of Laguna and the Ntra. Sra. De la Candelaria University Hospital.
According to organisers of the program, WILDAF and Solidaridad Enfermera, public health emergencies are common occurrences at these facilities and therefore, it is imperative to position frontline workers in these facilities to manage these developments.
In a Citi News interview, the Deputy Director for Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, David Ahadzi said “we are excited about the initiative, and we thank the NGOs who have come together to make this possible. We are hoping that our emergency preparedness and the services we provide for emergencies will be improved going forward”
A beneficiary of the ongoing training programme, Jackline Wora, said the programme has added value to her skills as a professional nurse.
“We have been taught more on preventive measures, how to prevent infections, handling patients in isolation. The training has actually built up our knowledge on what we used to know”.
As part of the training, facilitators will take participants through topics such as, Public Health Surveillance, Health Protection, leadership and communication among others.
Participants will also receive certificate of participation at the end of the training.