Nicholas Paa Kwasi Turkson adjudged best community nurse in Wassa East

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Wassa East Chapter, has adjudged, Mr. Nicholas Paa Kwasi Turkson, a Community Health Nurse as the best Community Nurse in Wassa East District.

Mr. Turkson who was posted to the District and subsequently assigned to the Domama CHIP Compound in the Ekutase Electoral Area is the first Nurse to form Adolescent Health Club in the District, which has helped in reducing teenage pregnancy within the catchment area. He also created Reproductive Child Health (RCH) unit at the facility to ensure privacy and confidentiality.

Again, Mr. Turkson rewards Mothers who complete their Child Welfare Clinic Schedule by organising a party at the end of each year to motivate other mothers.

Presenting the award at the Mid-year Performance Review Meeting for 2022, by the Wassa East District Health Directorate at Daboase in the Western Region, The District Director of Health, Mr. Emmanuel Affelkum, said the District takes pride in health practitioners who find innovative ways in addressing health delivery challenges.

On the Mid-year review, Mr. Affelkum said, the review would afford the Directorate the opportunity to take stock by assessing their performance based on the target set for the year as well as address challenges and forge ahead towards the goal.

He said the base of the indicator on the planned activities reviewed so far gives a clear picture of working towards the set target in all the service areas and urged all service providers to re-focus to ensure that the target is achieved, stressing that this will be followed by periodic sub-district reviews as well as validation and monitoring support visits.

Touching on the challenges raised in the presentations, the Health Director said, despite the challenges and constraints, the Directorate has been able to achieve slightly above the average performance for the Mid-year. He acknowledged that some of the challenges go beyond the ability of the Directorate. He mentioned accessibility, difficulty in traveling, and unavailability of vehicles among others as some of the constraints but was quick to add that other local means such as motorbikes, tricycles are used to administer health services in the remotest part of the District.

Answering questions on the recently discovered monkeypox and marburg virus, Mr. Affelkum encourages the public to be mindful of any health conditions that is reported within the community by reporting to the closest health facility, “where there are no facility, the report should be made to the community health surveillance volunteers who will intend report to a facility for the necessary steps to be triggered to reduce any form of an outbreak," he added.

There were presentations on improving data collection, Managing referrals, and Improving Reproductive and Maternal Health. The rest are Disease Control with emphasis on covid-19 and Preventing iron Deficiency Anaemia, Code of conduct and Maternal Health issues.