The Psychiatric Nurses’ Training College, Ankaful (PNTC), known as Ankaful Nurses Training College, has held its 21st Matriculation and Graduation Ceremony at Ankaful, in the Central Region of Ghana.
The institution, whose activities the Ministry of Education supervises, offers a three-year diploma in nursing certificate, is located at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, The Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates the programmes, curriculum and examination of the student nurses and midwives.
This year, the college admitted 246 Diplomas in Registered Community Mental Nursing and 200 Diplomas in Registered Mental Nursing students totalling 446 matriculants.
The 240 graduates comprise 101 Diploma in Community Psychiatric Nursing and 139 Diploma in Community Mental Nursing.
The event had the theme “Prioritizing Mental Health Everywhere: The Role of Mental Health Nursing Students”.
The Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Jerry Paul Ninnon, the guest speaker at the event held on the college’s campus at Ankaful has raised concerns about poor attention given to mental health rights in the country.
Prof. Jerry Paul Kukye-Ayiri Ninnoni, Dean of the Department of Mental Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, congratulated the matriculants and the graduating students. He expressed regret that although one cannot over-emphasize the importance of Psychiatric Health Nursing, Ghana still lags with only 2 percent of the estimated 34 million citizens having access to mental health.
The don at UCC mentioned that stigmatising mental health patients is another issue of great concern in the country – it portrays mental illness as a taboo, and incurable and alienates people who suffer from it. He said such patients live in fear, and fail to report timeously their ailments to the appropriate medical practitioners until things get worse.
PNTC, Ankaful Nursing School principal, Simon Dogeduang, in his welcome address, disclosed that though the college has and continues to produce graduates who render mental health services to Ghanaians, in particular, and the entire world in general, it lacks adequate staff and student accommodation, spacious room forInformation and Communications Technology (ICT) laboratory. He appealed to the government, NGOs and education stakeholders to assist in meeting the physical and infrastructural needs of the college.
Mr. Simon Dogeduang noted that the college could lose its land property through unauthorised occupation. He said unknown people from the surrounding communities have been encroaching on the schoolland and appealed for the government’s intervention to thwart the menace.
Touching on the inadequate staff on the campus, Mr. Simon Dogeduang noted that the college has been compelled to engage the services of casual staff to address the institution’s needs.
The government’s failure to mechanise casual staff for a while has coerced the school management to pay some salaries using internally generated funds, leaving it depleted. He therefore pleaded with the government for urgent attention.
He asked the matriculants to live by the dos and don’ts in the oaths sworn to make their stay on the campus problem-free and successful.
The overall best-graduating student, Seidu Anderson, took the gatherings through her success story. She encouraged the continuing students, most especially, the females to emulate her exemplary lifestyle – study hard and be of good behaviour to crown their academic pursuits with success
The traditional rulers and learned at Ankaful and its environs graced the matriculation and graduation ceremony.
As part of the event, students who excelled in their education on the campus were honoured in cash and kind
