The Nursing Students Association (NUSA) of UCC in conjunction with Nursing students from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) has held health outreach at Bronyibima, near Elmina in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) Municipal Assembly.

The outreach programme which was organised as part of the NUSA week-celebrations was aimed at educating, counseling and screening people in the community for some medical conditions.

In an interview, the President of NUSA, Mr. Theophilus Marfo said the community was one of the selected places where they had been conducting outreach programmes over the past years. “We will be checking the body mass index (BMI), malaria, blood sugar, counselling services and vitae signs that is pulse, perspiration and blood pressure,” he explained.

Mr. Marfo said the 2020 NUSA week celebration was organised to coincide with the visit of the GVSU team so that they could work together to bring their varied experience to bear. “Today being Ghana’s independence, we have contributed our quota to help people in this community to get good health,” he noted.

The students educated community members on some disease conditions like Cholera, Malaria and Sexually Transmitted Infections and personal hygiene. They advised them on healthy lifestyles and practices in order to live long. Those whose conditions were complicated were referred to health facilities in the municipality for further attention. 

Present at the outreach programme were some lecturers from the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The School of Nursing and Midwifery has welcomed the eighth batch of nursing students from Grand Valley State University (GVSU), USA, for the 2020 Study Abroad in Ghana.
 

The GVSU students who were accompanied by three lecturers are in Ghana for a two-week Community Health Nursing programme in some communities in the Central Region. 

In his welcome address, the Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr. Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, noted the collaboration between the two institutions continued to grow from strength to strength each year. She said faculty and students from both institutions had benefited immensely through the programme. “Both of us have shared best practices and this has contributed to the success of this programme” she noted.
Dr. Obiri-Yeboah urged the students to participate actively in all activities during the programme. “Whiles here, you will be exposed to the health systems in our country and I believe you will be able to specifically compare what goes on in your country to what you will be seeing here” she explained. 

In his presentation, a Principal Programmer at the Centre for International Education, Mr. Isaac Eshun, said the University ran various programmes in the sciences, humanities and education under its five colleges namely, College of Education Studies, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences and the College of Distance Education. He indicated that UCC admitted students from all over the world into either fulltime or exchange programme. “UCC has excellent facilities and a conducive environment for all students,” he added. 

On his part, the Head of Research, Central Regional, Health Directorate, Mr. Emmanuel Edum-Fotwe said Ghana operated pluralistic health system made up of public, private, traditional and other sectors. He also noted that it operated six sub-systems involving international, national, regional, district, sub-district and community health systems. “The goal of Ghana Health System is to ensure a healthy and productive population that reproduces itself safely,” he stated.
Stressing on the community health systems where the students would be conducting their activities, Mr. Edum-Fotwe said the national strategy was to deliver essential community-based health services to ensure Universal Health Coverage. He said that it consisted of Community-Based Health Planning and Services zone or compound (CHPS).  “CHPS Zone is a demarcated geographical area of up to 5000 persons or 750 households in densely populated areas and CHPS compound is an approved structure consisting of a service delivery point and accommodation complex,” he noted.
 

Speaking on Ghanaian Culture and Health Care, the Director of the Centre for African and International Studies, Dr. Alex Wilson, said there were about 200 ethnic groups in Ghana and therefore the country had no single Ghanaian culture because Ghana was multi-ethnic. “However, there is unity in diversity so we have what we can call Ghanaian Culture,” he explained. He mentioned that the major ethnic groups of Ghana include Akan, Ga-Adangbe, Ewe and Mole/Dagbani.
Like other Africans, he indicated that Ghanaians were notoriously religious. There are “triple heritage of Ghanaian –influenced by indigenous culture, Christianity/colonialism, Islam”.

Some of the unacceptable practices he said they should desist from whiles in the communities included taking pictures without the consent of the people; making derogatory or funny comments about religion among others. Dr. Wilson also made them aware that there were some American Cultures that would not be taken kindly to Ghana. “Address Ghanaians by their academic, professional, or honorific title and their surname. Use of left hand-handshake, pointing to a direction, gestures and the use of words or phrases like ‘hey’ ‘come on’ ‘don’t be silly’ should be avoided, etc.,” he added.

Some of the activities for the two-week study abroad programme are “observational visit to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, post-conference analysis of each day’s programme and Community Outreach with UCC Nursing Students Association (NUSA) at Bronyimbima in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Municipal Assembly (KEEA). Others include field replacement and rotation at urban/peri-urban health centres, cultural event at the Department of Music and Dance Laboratory, field trip to Cape Coast Castle, Hans Cottage, Kakum Rain Forest and Monkey Sanctuary.

The leader of the GVSU team, Prof. Sylvia Mupepi, said the team was made up of students who were passionate about global health relations. Prof. Mupepi thanked the Dean, faculty and administrative staff of the School of Nursing and Midwifery and the University for the warm reception accorded them since the inception of the programme. “We are grateful for making us feel at home and we know this programme has come to stay,” she said. 

Present were some lecturers and administrative staff of the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The Department of Human Resource Management has held a day's Colloquium aimed at providing a platform for interaction, exchange of ideas among Human Resource experts, practitioners and academia on contemporary issues in the profession.

The 2020 edition of the colloquium was on the theme: "The Role of Human Resource Management in the New World of Work". Participants included academics, HR practitioners and students.

A Human Resource Consultant, Mrs. Dorothy Asare, who spoke on the topic: “Work-Life Balance: the Role of Human Resource Management", explained that Human Resource (HR) practitioners must see themselves as strategic partners or managers. As a result, she advised HR practitioners to always be abreast of the strategic policies of their firms so as to know the directions of the companies to enable them “propose policies, practices, and activities to achieve the goals of the organisation".

Mrs. Asare advised HR practitioners to inculcate work-life balance into the values and culture of the organisation, especially during the induction of new employees. She told them to consider themselves as a service providers. "Everything revolves around HR. The health of the organisation. Whether it will be successful or not depends on human beings", she added.  He stressed that the human element was still very critical despite artificial intelligence, including the introduction of robots into organisations.

The renowned HR practitioners called on practitioners to have sympathetic ears to the plight of their employees and advised them to be circumspect and trustworthy so as not to relay information confided in them by their employees to third parties. She advised them to make good use of records and asked them to embrace the Human Resource Information system to enable them to know the demographics of their employees to make them more efficient in their duties. Mrs. Asare implored HR practitioners to embrace networking so as to reach out to other HR officials in other firms to be apprised themselves of issues relating to HR management.

She advised them to exude good human relations with their staff members and asked them to "work with integrity and avoid any situation that will compromise yourself, especially conflict of interest." She asked the practitioners to draw closer to their employees who want to sell their leave so as to know their problems at first hand.

Mrs. Asare charged practitioners to enforce both maternity and paternity leaves of their employees, which she said was part of work life balance. She mentioned seminars, distribution of free meals, health walks, holidays, amongst others, as some of the benefits to help employees achieve work balance.

Speaking on the topic: “Career Self-management in the 4th Industrial Revolution", the Executive Director of the Institute of Human Resource Practitioners, Dr. Ebenezer Ofori Agbetor, explained that the fourth industrial revolution "is the current and developing environment which technology trends are changing the way we live, the way we work and the way we relate to one another”. “He said the fourth industrial revolution included robotics, internet of things, virtual realities and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Agbetor, therefore, called on HR practitioners and students to holistically embrace technology to improve their lives. He said technology was a necessity that could accelerate development in the works of HR practitioners reading career self-management in the fourth industrial revolution. He added that the 4th industrial Revolution was a potential threat to the career well-being of workers.

Dr. Agbetor urged students to patronise the career counselling of the School of Business to empower them in their career self-development and advised them to invest in books to acquire knowledge in their field of study for their career development. Again, he appealed to HR practitioners to solicit feedback from their managers and peers regarding their strengths and weaknesses for their own development.

The Head of the Department of Human Resource Management, Dr. Rebecca Dei Mensah, and in contemporary times, the world of work was no longer simple or routine. “Indeed, old business models and outmoded management and leadership practices do not fit this new reality” she noted. She indicated that these changes had been characterised by globalisation, increasing competitiveness of organisations, outsourcing of operations, generational shifts in the workplace, incompatible demands between work and family roles and the high rate of technological changes.

Dr. Mensah said the theme for the colloquium was very apt. “This is because today’s organisations need managers and employees with knowledge and skills in change management, innovation, communication, and strategic thinking” she explained. She said managers should be able to manage their own careers as well as balance their work and family life to minimize the associated conflicts. “For today’s organisations to be able to thrive and achieve their purposes, they must appropriately leverage the competencies of adroit employees and be interested in their welfare so as to enjoy benefits such as employee engagement which is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, show commitment to their organisation, and put in discretionary efforts to help the employer to succeed,” she noted.