A student nurse of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Cape Coast (UCC), Mrs. Joana Awuah-Odum, has introduced an Electronic Health System at the Out-Patient Department of the Mankessim Health Centre in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.

Also known as the e-Health Project, the initiative is to help reduce the time used to retrieve records of patients at the facility and also cut cost of health care delivery since it eliminates the use of folders.

The intervention by Mrs. Awuah-Odum, an MSc Nursing student, follows an inter-semester practicum assignment under the Change Project paper she undertook as her research work at the School of Nursing and Midwifery. According to the Change Programme, students identify an existing challenge confronting a preferred health facility and solve it.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Mrs.  Awuah-Odum, said the main aim of her project was to implement an electronic health system in the Mankessim Health Centre to enhance health delivery and an effective data management system.

She indicated that the records unit of the facility, which used to be crowded with patients waiting to take their folders, has been liberated with the introduction of the electronic health system.

Mrs. Awuah-Odum, who is also a staff member of the facility, appealed to health workers to uphold high standards of professionalism, work with passion and to have empathy for the sick. She also used the opportunity to call on public-spirited individuals and companies to assist the health centre with a server so that the system could be extended to other departments of the Centre.

A nurse at the facility demonstrating how the e-Health System operates

For his part, a lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery-UCC, Mr. Frederick Nsatimba, who was the guest of honour at the function, congratulated Mrs. Awuah-Odum on her immense contributions to Ghana's health care system.

He counseled nurses to strive for excellence and maintain high standards of professionalism. He said contrary to expectations of love, compassion and tenderness, nurses were being accused of neglect of their duties through bad communication to clients and their close relatives.

He encouraged healthcare workers in the Municipality to take advantage of the academic programmes being offered by the School of Nursing and Midwifery-UCC to pursue further studies to overcome the challenges in the profession.

The Municipal Disease Control Officer, Mr. Oware Mengyah, said Mankessim Health Centre had set the pace for other health facilities in the Municipality to emulate the e-Health System.

He lauded UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery for initiating the Change Programme which has translated to real change in society.

Mr Oware noted that the health sector could not succeed without research into phenomena in the healthcare settings, saying the nursing and midwifery research was a growing field where practitioners can contribute their skills and experiences to the science of nursing care.

The event was graced by traditional authorities, clergy, opinion leaders and politicians.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC