Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 May 22;17(1):32.
doi: 10.1186/s12960-019-0377-1.

Nurses and midwives demographic shift in Ghana-the policy implications of a looming crisis

James Avoka Asamani  1 , Ninon P Amertil  2 , Hamza Ismaila  3 , Akugri Abande Francis  2 , Margaret M Chebere  3 , Juliet Nabyonga-Orem  4
Affiliations

Nurses and midwives demographic shift in Ghana-the policy implications of a looming crisis

James Avoka Asamani et al. Hum Resour Health. .

Abstract

As part of measures to address severe shortage of nurses and midwives, Ghana embarked on massive scale-up of the production of nurses and midwives which has yielded remarkable improvements in nurse staffing levels. It has, however, also resulted in a dramatic demographic shift in the nursing and midwifery workforce in which 71 to 93% of nurses and midwives by 2018 were 35 years or younger, as compared with 2.8 to 44% in 2008. In this commentary, we examine how the drastic generational transition could adversely impact on the quality of nursing care and how the educational advancement needs of the young generation of the nursing and midwifery workforce are not being met. We propose the institution of a national nursing and midwifery mentorship programme and a review of the study leave policy to make it flexible and be based on a comprehensive training needs assessment of the nursing and midwifery workforce. We further advocate that policymakers should also consider upgrading all professional nursing and midwifery programmes to bachelor degrees as this would not only potentially enhance the quality of training but also address the phenomenon of large numbers of nurses and midwives seeking bachelor degree training soon after employment-sometimes putting them at the offending side of organisational policy.

Keywords: Health workforce policy; Human resources for health; Nursing and midwifery workforce; Nursing demographics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age profile of nurses and midwives in the public sector of Ghana, 2008 vs 2018
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Boniol M, McIsaac M, Xu L, Wuliji T, Diallo K, Campbell J. Gender equity in the health workforce: analysis of 104 countries. Geneva: World Health Organ; 2019. p. 8.
    1. George A. Human resources for health: a gender analysis. 2007. p. 57. https://www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/human_resources_for_he...
    1. WHO . The world health report: 2006: working together for health. 2006. - PubMed
    1. MOH . Human resource policies and strategies for the health sector, 2007–2011 [Internet] Ghana: Ministry of Health; 2007.
    1. Sagoe K. Human resources for health - challenges and strategies to address them in sub-Saharan Africa. 2013.