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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Officials at the Mulago School of Nursing and Midwifery have complained that the facility that opened in 1955 is stuck with diploma courses even with advances made in clinical training over the years.
Eva Nampiima, the Principal at the school said that initially the facility was offering certificate courses but went on upgrading to handle diploma courses only to get stuck there for years even after turning into a centre of excellence. She says it’s long overdue for them to start offering degree courses.
Nampiima was speaking at a graduation ceremony held on Friday where 548 nurses, midwives and palliative nursing officers obtained diplomas and advanced diplomas in their respective fields.
While the school is pushing to start offering degrees, the principal revealed at the occasion which was attended by top officials from the ministries of education, Public Service and health that they are still handicapped when it comes to staffing with only thirteen of their staff being paid by the government.
The 52 are remunerated locally from collections by the governing council. When this was put to officials in the Public Service, they instead said they would discuss this with the Education Service Commission to forge a way forward.
While she explained that most recruitment has been decentralized, Grace Mary Mugasa the Public Service State Minister instead cautioned graduands to beware of the vice of selling government jobs which has become booming for fraudsters especially after they enhanced salaries.
On his part, however, John C Muyingo the Minister of State for Higher Education, there is a proper process provided in the law which an institution is supposed to follow to be upgraded to offer degree courses. He says the school needs to apply to the National Council for Higher Education to assess its eligibility to offer degrees.
Meanwhile of the over five hundred who graduated, only seventeen did palliative care nursing, an area which is relatively new having started the course in 2019. Muyingo urged more students to enrol for the course considering the need where access to palliative care services is estimated to be about 11 per cent countrywide.
Margret Nagawa who graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Palliative Care Nursing tells URN that she long started working at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital even before the graduation ceremony due to the high need for such services that include among others pain management for terminally ill individuals including those that are nearing their end of life.
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