MEDICAL EDUCATION HELD FOR HEALTH PERSONNEL (GRAPHIC NSEMPA, PAGE 14)

By Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah,
Kintampo

A TOTAL of 172 health personnel, made up of practicing medical assistants from across the country, post basic medical assistant trainees of the Rural Health Training School (RHTS) at Kintampo as well as final year midwifery students of the Berekum Nurses Training College have successfully undergone medical education at the RHTS to sharpen their skills.
At the same programme, nine students from the University of Utah in the United States of America (USA), participated in the study of tropical medicine while the Ghanaians were taken through topics such as cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), HIV in pregnancy, anaemia in women, labour and delivery, hypertension and chronic renal disease.
They were also taken through family and occupational medicine, infectious diseases and integrated disease surveillance response, US and Indian health systems model as well as ethics of medical practice and role of regulatory bodies in Ghana.
Twenty-one resource persons from the RHTS and Utah, handled the three-day intensive course, which was a collaboration between the RHTS and the University of Utah established a couple of years ago with the aim of pursuing excellence in medical education.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Director of RHTS, Dr. E.T. Adjase, noted that as primary health care practitioners they had a crucial role to play in the general health care delivery of the country.
He indicated that now that the school is able to turn out 500 medical assistants every year, at least it was contributing its quota in solving the shortage of health personnel in the health institutions.
Dr Adjase expressed the hope that, with the updated knowledge acquired, the participants would be able to apply it at their respective areas of work to the benefit of their community members.
The leader of the Utah group, Madam Nadia Miniclier, who is a Certified Physician Assistant of the University said the programme had helped the group to achieve a lot and that they would go back to their base with a new vision, adding that, “We are pleased with the commitment of RHTS to the collaboration we have charted”.
Representatives of the medical assistants and the trainees as well as the foreign partners who spoke, expressed their delight and appreciation at the collaboration since they had acquired a wealth of knowledge to assist them in their medical practices.
The Utah leader later presented teaching and learning materials, and plaques to the RHTS and also a wheelchair to Madam Akosua Saah, who is a member of the Kintampo branch of the physically challenged association.