The Hospital for Sick Children

Published purpose

This project aims to reduce death and illness among newborns and children in underserved districts in Ghana. By expanding paediatric nurse programs, this project seeks to build the professional skills of paediatric nurses and health workers to provide quality, cost-effective, evidence-based nursing and midwifery care to newborns and children. Project activities include: (1) establishing three new training institutions for paediatric nursing specialist programs and continuing professional development courses; (2) developing standardized curricula for the paediatric nursing specialist program and the continuing professional development course at the national Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives; (3) delivering paediatric nursing specialist training programs to 500 nurses; (4) delivering continuing professional development courses on subjects such as sickle cell disease, neonatal care and nutrition to 1,000 nurses, midwives, and community health workers; and, (5) facilitating the adoption of essential policies including equitable national recruitment, retention and deployment strategies for scale-up with a focus on underserved regions. The project expects to reach about 1,500 people, including nurses, midwives and health workers, directly with training. Approximately 6,700,000 children and newborns are also expected to benefit from better health services as a result of the scale-up of paediatric nursing programs in Ghana. DFATD has set aside funds for an evaluation of this project. For administrative reasons, the funds identified for this purpose have been included in the amount appearing on this page.