NGO upgrades Ho CHPS zones into training sites

A non-governmental organization (NGO), JHPIEGO, has upgraded two Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) zones into training sites for community health students in Ho.

The Maternal and Child Survival Programme (MCSP)-a USAID grantee NGO, has also established a clinical skills laboratory for the Ho Nurses/Community Training College to improve teaching and learning.

The model Hodzo and Akome CHPS zones, now training sites, will help sharpen skills of community health nurses and prepare them to function as community health officers.

The facilities, provided with medical equipment and consumables, will also operate as primary healthcare centres.

Madam Joesphine Ansu-Gyeabour, Principal, Ho Nursing Training College, at the commissioning of the Hodzo training site, said placing a student nurse in the community, tasked with health outreach activities would enhance quality training and help reduce child and maternal health challenges in rural communities.

She commended JHPIEGO for the foresight and expressed hope that the project would promote quality nursing care and add value to the CHPS concept.

Ms Karen Caldwell, Project Director, MCSP, said the initiative was to scale up efforts at improving child and maternal health in Ghana adding that the success of the project would inform its expansion to cover the country.

Mr Robert Adatsi, Deputy Director, Clinical care, Ghana Health Services, Volta Region, said CHPS is a very important strategy to reach the “lowest level” in communities with basic but essential health services and asked host communities to take advantage of the concept.

MCSP is a global, USAID Cooperative Agreement to introduce and support high-impact health interventions, with a focus on 25 high-priority countries including Ghana with the ultimate goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths within a generation.

The programme is supporting and strengthening pre-service education for midwives and community health nurses in partnership with Health Training Institutions Secretariat (HTIS) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) of Ghana.

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