The five-day event, on the theme “Enhancing specialist nursing and midwifery practice: A call for investment, collaboration and innovation,” also witnessed the induction of 833 newly admitted nurses and midwives into the College.

Delivering the keynote address, an Associate Professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Ghana, Prof. Adelaide Maria Ansah-Ofei, said Ghana’s health outcomes largely depended on how well the country invested in the continuous development, motivation, and equitable distribution of its nursing and midwifery workforce, which constitutes over 70 per cent of the national health sector.

She said, investment in specialist training should not be seen as a cost but rather as a proactive strategy to reduce preventable deaths in intensive care units, labour wards, and emergency centres.

Prof. Ansah-Ofei identified inadequate workforce, unequal distribution of professionals, and poor working conditions as challenges that continue to undermine effective health service delivery across the country.

“Our numbers are still few, our distribution is still unequal, and far too often, our voices are not heard,” she lamented.

The Professor stressed the need for investment in infrastructure, capacity-building, and digital literacy to help professionals adapt to modern healthcare demands.

She also urged government, development partners, and health institutions to expand residency programmes, provide more scholarships for specialist education, and create incentives to make the profession more attractive.

“No patient should be left without the expertise of a specialist, and no community should be denied access to quality care because specialists are concentrated in the cities,” she added.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Mr Desmond Boateng, reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to collaborate with the GCNM to expand professional pathways and enhance service delivery at all levels of care.

He noted that nurses and midwives play a central role in achieving both national and global health targets, including universal health coverage and primary healthcare goals.

However, he urged the College to strengthen its role in promoting professionalism and ethical conduct among practitioners.

“Reports of poor communication, lapses in professionalism, and occasionally disrespectful encounters have affected the image of a profession that has long been held in the highest esteem. This is where our specialist nurses and midwives must rise to the occasion,” he said.

“With your advanced training, leadership capacity and ethical grounding, you must serve as role models, champions of excellence, compassion, and integrity to restore the deep public confidence that is the bedrock of effective healthcare delivery,” Mr Boateng added.

The President of the College, Prof. Victoria Bam, appealed to the government to support the institution’s infrastructural development plans to expand access to specialist training in critical areas of healthcare.

“Specialist education is expensive, and many of our residents struggle to afford it. Added to this is the worrying trend of nurses and midwives leaving for greener pastures,” she said.

“To address this, we advocate better funding, increased study leave with pay, and deliberate policies that encourage specialisation,” Prof. Bam emphasised.