STUDENTS OF the Koforidua Nursing and Midwifery Training College in the Eastern region have become targets of mobile phone-snatching gangs operating in the Adweso and Korle-Nkwanta areas where the college is located.
These hoodlums attack and rob the students of their phones with impunity especially in the night because the college is not walled.
More than 20 students have so far fallen prey to these criminals, putting fear in most of the female students about the possibility of them being raped by the criminal gangs.
The situation has become so worrying that the principal of the college, Mrs Doreen Osae-Ayensu, at an official matriculation of students on Friday, had to plead with the government and corporate bodies as well as parents of students to urgently come to the aid of the college by helping it erect a defensive wall to guard the students against such dangers.
The principal added that the school compound, during daytime, is used by commuters to and from Korle-Nkwanta and Adweso which also poses all sorts of danger to students and staff members.
She indicated that in view of these and other problems such as inadequate accommodation for students and staff as well as the need to acquire a better bus to send students on clinicals, management of the college had decided to levy every student GH¢20 per semester towards the provision of these facilities.
She further indicated that students would be billed for their uniforms and textbooks to ensure uniformity and smooth academic progress from the next academic year.
The guest speaker at the matriculation ceremony, Mr George Kumi-Kyeremeh, who is the Director of Nursing Services, reminded nurses of the enormous challenges that lie ahead of them as a result of increased visits by patients to health facilities due to access to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and free maternal care.
He, however, expressed grave concern about the 'snubbish' attitude of some nurses and health personnel towards patients, adding that now patients are becoming more educated on their rights as a result of the vibrant media terrain and the use of internet, and can therefore request any health staff to account for whatever happens at a health facility.
He said when patients come to the hospitals they watch closely how nurses and other health personnel treat them and some of them can openly and publicly acknowledge 'caring' health staff and shower them with gifts.
Mr Kumi-Kyeremeh called on the government to set up the Ghana College of Nursing and Midwifery to pave way for specialisation in the nursing profession.
The chairman for the occasion, Mr Dua Oyinka, a deputy director, Health Administration, entreated fresh nurses to accept posting to any part of the country since it is human beings that they are going to serve.
Some of the students DAILY GUIDE spoke to asked the regional police command to send policemen on patrol around the school premises especially in the night.
From Thomas Fosu Jnr, Koforidua
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