This requires the right mix of facilities and equipment, financial protection backbone and well-motivated workforce of health personnel.

Mr Abban said the challenge to improving Ghana's health systems required for the right number of trained healthcare workers at the right places to achieve universal health service delivery.

The Deputy Minister made this known at the induction ceremony of 5,302 qualified Nurse Assistants and Nurses and Midwives for 2018 from the Northern Zone in Wa.

About 20,032 qualified Nurss Assistants and Nurses and Midwives are to be inducted throughout the country.

He said Ghana had a target to contribute to the global achievement of the sustainable development goals, which needed well trained nurses and midwives who would work with optimum commitment and professionalism to contribute to the global reduction of maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per cent per 100,000 live births.

Nurses and other health professionals have the task to end preventable deaths of new-born and children under five years, reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 percent per 1,000 live births and less than five mortality to at least as low as 25 percent per 1,000 live births.

"It is also a daunting challenge on them to work harder to reduce by a third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and wellbeing by 2030," Mr Abban said.

"There is the need to have more preventive and specialised nurses as against the few specialised nurses who made it difficult to reach all persons needing specialised healthcare".

He said with the establishment of Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, government was confident that more trained specialised nurses and midwives would be churned out to improve on quality service delivery and better healthcare systems.

He said continuous professional development was a requirement for the renewal of license annually.

Qualified nurses and midwives were urged to continue their education so that they could keep themselves up-to-date with new trends in medical advancements and research findings.

He said the Nursing and Midwifery Council has accredited more than 65 Continuous Professional Development (CPD) activities and other 30 CPD accredited organisations details of which could be found on the Council's website.

The Deputy Minister said nursing and midwifery research had a tremendous influence on current and future professional nursing practices; hence making it an essential component of the educational process would be of great benefit.

He encouraged nurses to take advantage of the CPD to broaden their knowledge and skills.

"It is my hope that nursing and midwifery practitioners would upgrade their knowledge by going into research and publishing their findings to contribute to the improvement of service delivery".