Facing severe overcrowding in nursing and midwifery training facilities, Uganda’s First Lady and Education Minister, Janet Kataaha Museveni, has called for a reduction in Nursing and Midwifery Schools student intake.
This announcement comes as the latest results for nursing and midwifery exams show improved performance compared to the previous year. The First Lady stressed that the nation’s resources are currently insufficient to expand existing hospitals.
More so, build new ones to accommodate the growing number of trainees. This lack of resources directly contributes to the congestion seen in healthcare facilities used for training.
“As we all know, we do not have the resources we need to take care of the many things that we have to do and this includes building enough hospitals or expanding the existing ones so that we have more room to train our nurses, midwives and other health workers,” Janet Museveni stated.
The directive echoes concerns previously raised by Christine Nimwesiga, chairperson of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination Board (UNMEB). Nimwesiga urged the Ministry of Education and Sports to address the overcrowding issue to maintain the quality of healthcare education and training.
Despite the challenges, students who sat for the June 2024 nursing and midwifery exams demonstrated improved performance. The exams, held across 132 centres in the country, saw 18,470 learners participate. Results show that the majority of the candidates, 17,652, successfully passed.
UNMEB Executive Secretary, Hellen Mukakarisa, highlighted the positive trend in the results. “Generally, the performance of the 37th series is better than that of the 35th series as evidenced by more candidates attaining more distinctions and credits grades and fewer of them with pass grade,” Mukakarisa stated.
In summary:
- First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni has ordered a reduction in student intake for nursing and midwifery programmes to address overcrowding in training facilities.
- The directive comes amidst concerns over inadequate resources to expand or build new hospitals to accommodate the growing number of trainees.
- Despite the challenges, students have shown improved performance in the recent nursing and midwifery examinations compared to the previous year.
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