Nurses urged to prioritise rural areas
CCAP Synod of Livingstonia has urged nurses to prioritise rural areas for the country to improve health indicators.
The synod’s moderator the Reverend John Gondwe said this during the graduation of 25 community midwifery assistants and 60 nursing and midwifery technicians from Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences on Friday.
“I am concerned that it is taking too long for the graduates to be employed after being certified by the nurses’ council. This defeats the whole purpose of training them for rural areas,” he said.
Gondwe warned the graduates against unruly conduct such as selling hospital drugs and abusing patients.
The college’s principal, Esau Kasonda, thanked government for the continued support to the institution through secondment of tutors, paying salaries for the majority of staff, providing partial scholarships for students and other technical support.
World Learning chief of party Sellina Kanyerere-Mkweteza, whose organisation sponsored 24 of the 25 community midwifery assistants, said they remain committed to strengthening Malawi’s human resources in the health sector.
The Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences was established in 1946 to train midwives for Ekwendeni, Livingstonia and Embangweni hospitals. n
