CHRAJ trains 105 Ankaful nurses on human rights

Ankaful, May 5, GNA - A total of 105 student nurses of the Ankaful Nurses Training College (ANTC) on Friday graduated from the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice's (CHRAJ) Basic Course for Health Professionals Programme for the 2011/2012 academic year.

They form the third batch of students trained by CHRAJ since it started the Course eight years ago, to promote and deepen the culture of respect for human rights in Ghana amongst civil society groups and schools.

The course, among others, was aimed at equipping trainees with basic human rights knowledge to enable them to understand the rights of patients and how health care service impacts on those rights and also to empower them to promote and protect the rights of patients, especially the vulnerable ones.

It was further to enhance service delivery by reducing incidents of human rights abuses within health facilities as well as increase patients' satisfaction and raise their confidence in that sector.

Mr Richard Ackom Quayson, the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ said the Course does not seek to make health professionals infallible but rather to assist them to take a more purposeful approach to health care service delivery to meet the expectations of end users and enhance patient-health professional relationships.

He said the right to health was critical to human life and foundational to all human rights and therefore health care delivery should be in the right measure, at the right time, in the right manner and under the right circumstances.

The Deputy Commissioner indicated that the programme since its inception about eight years ago has benefitted 1,115 nurses from five nursing colleges in the country, including Bolga, Takoradi, Sunyani, Cape Coast and Ankaful Nurses Training Colleges, with the Cape Coast Nurses and Midwifery Training College being the first.

He said the commission intends to review the programme and its course content, as well as its impact on health care delivery to enable it to meet the challenges militating against the objectives of the Course.

Mr Quayson noted that the review would also provide the baseline for the Ghana Health Service and the Nurses and Midwifes Council to structure the course and mainstream it in the formal training of health professionals, since as it is now, it's not part of the colleges' curricular but only complementing it.

Mr. Geoffrey Kwesi Arhin, Central Regional Director of CHRAJ expressed the hope that the Course will help fulfil the Commission's vision of ensuring a society that is truly free, just, and equitable, where human dignity is respected, where power is accountable and governance is transparent.

Mr. TheophilusTettehTuwor, Principal Investigator for CHRAJ said ten topics, including the “origin of human rights, mandates of CHRAJ and cases that can be reported at CHRAJ, fundamental human rights and freedoms, as enshrined in the 1992 constitution, domestic violence act, 2007 act 732, and the role of the nurse in assisting victims of domestic violence” were taught.

Others were the” human rights aspect of the nurses pledge, the patient's character, rights and responsibilities of employees and employers, sexual harassment at the work place, and whistle blower's Act, 2006 ACT 720.

GNA