SickKids Centre for Global Child Health welcomes significant grant for more paediatric nurse training in Ghana

The Centre for Global Child Health has been granted $9,465,000 from Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Canada (DFATD) over the next five years for the SickKids-Ghana Paediatric Nurse Training Programme that improves the health and saves lives of newborns and children in Ghana.

Lois Brown, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development and Member of Parliament for Newmarket-Aurora made the announcement on behalf of Hon. Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie Canada, on January 13, 2015, at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning.

“Our government is proud of our successful partnership with SickKids in strengthening paediatric health systems by training health care workers to provide quality, cost-effective and sustainable nursing and midwifery care to newborns and children in Ghana,” said Brown. “Scaling up our efforts will help improve the health and save the lives of even more Ghanaian newborns and children.”

“This is a significant day for SickKids and our work towards improving child health around the world,” said Dr. Mike Apkon, President & CEO, The Hospital for Sick Children. “Today, we reflect on and celebrate progress achieved to date. Working with our Ghanaian partners, we were able to successfully match local needs and skills with SickKids expertise to deliver on collaborative paediatric health workforce training and education.”The first phase of the SickKids-Ghana Paediatric Nurse Training Programme was a flagship initiative of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health to help build sustainable capacity for improved paediatric health in Ghana. In the past four years, 223 nurses from all 10 regions of Ghana have graduated from the Paediatric Nurse Training Programme.

With the Government of Canada’s contribution, the SickKids-Ghana Scaling-Up Paediatric Nursing in Ghana Programme will help the Government of Ghana and the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives work toward achieving their goal of training and retaining 1,500 nurses by 2025.

 “This investment will have both an immediate and ongoing impact on child morbidity and mortality in Ghana,” said Dr. Jemima Dennis-Antwi, President, Ghana College of Nurses & Midwives. “Nurses and midwives trained through this program go on to become leaders in our communities and active advocates for child health. We understand the Ghanaian context of care, enabling us to best affect improved paediatric health outcomes.”

By investing in the education and training of a new paediatric nurse workforce in Ghana, quality of care will improve through the increased ability of paediatric nurses to identify, prevent and treat childhood illnesses and provide health education to children and families.

The five-year initiative (2014-2019) will be implemented by SickKids together with the Ghana Health Services (Ministry of Health) and the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives. Some project activities include:

• Establish three new training institutions for paediatric nursing specialist programs and continuing professional development courses;
• Develop national standardized curricula for the paediatric nursing specialist program and the continuing professional development course at the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives;
• Deliver paediatric nursing specialist training programs to 500 nurses; and
• Deliver continuing professional development courses to 1,000 nurses, midwives, and community health workers.

Learn more about the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health