The delegation was led by Mr Mafugi Bojang, the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in The Gambia, who was accompanied by Mr.  Alasana Darboe, his Deputy.

Mr Bojang at a brief ceremony in Accra, said his outfit chose to understudy Ghana due to the overwhelming credibility and integrity of the country's robust regulatory system for the training, education and practice of nursing and midwifery.

Mr. Darboe also explained that the visit formed part of the efforts of The Gambia, to restructure and transform its nursing and midwifery education, training and practice.

He said their visit would offer them the opportunity to understudy N&MC's licensing examination structure with particular interest in the "online licensing examination which Ghana has been touted as the first in Africa to introduce online examination in the training and education of nursing and midwifery profession".

He also mentioned other areas of interest as the ongoing reforms in respect to indexing, registration, accreditation, and the success stories of Ghana's Council.

Mrs. Philomina Woolley, the Deputy Registrar in charge of Operations at the Nursing and  Midwifery Council of Ghana, with the assistance of some senior officers received the delegation on behalf of the 14th Governing Board, the Registrar, Management and Staff.

She took the delegation through series of presentations and discussions on the Council's mandate, change management processes of the online licensing examination, digitization of the indexing process, renewal of license to practice, and the general operations of the Council.

She said the Council  In November 2017 received support for the development and implementation of the online licensing examination project from the Netherlands Embassy through its Capacity Development in Higher Education programme initiative (NICHE) and The Netherland Universities Foundation for International Cooperation (NUFFIC).

Mrs. Woolley explained that when the online licensing examination was finally introduced in September 2018, it had 374 Registered Mental Health Nurses from three training institutions as its first batch of candidates.

However,  "currently close to 8,000 nursing and midwifery candidates have taken licensing examination in Registered Mental Health Nursing, Registered Community Nursing, Registered Midwifery, Post Nursing Assistant Clinical, and  Preventive  (NAC and NAP) respectively, Midwifery, Peri-Operative Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Critical Care Nursing, Public Health Nursing and Ear, Nose and Throat Nursing," she said.

She said it is expected that in the year 2020, the Registered General Nursing and Registered Nurse Assistants (Clinical and Preventive) programmes would  be rolled on, to make the entire conduct of the licensing examination by the Council fully digitized.

Explaining the success of  of the online licensing examination, Mrs. Woolley said prior to its implementation, the Council took time to engage the various training institutions in an intensive education on the mode of operation of the exams.

It further conducted mock exercises to prepare the candidates psychologically by giving them a prior exposure to the computers and the new mode of examination  before the main exams was conducted.

She told the delegation that the Council is currently implementing the project in partnership with a consortium comprising CINOP Global and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The Gambian delegation were highly impressed about the delivery and requested the assistance of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana to restructure and transform the nursing and midwifery regulatory system in their country.

According to the delegation, they were ever ready to understudy and implement the transformational models and initiatives introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana.

Mrs. Woolley also assured the delegation of the N&MC's preparedness to cooperate, collaborate and assist in the restructuring and transformation of the nursing and midwifery regulatory system and operations in The Gambia as requested.

Giving a brief background, she said this visit follows study tours from many other countries including Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Liberia and Ethiopia who have underscored Ghana's growing international recognition in nursing and midwifery regulation.   

International countries such as Barbados, Germany, United Kingdom, and Jamaica among others have greatly expressed interest in engaging the services of Ghanaian nursing and midwifery practitioners, she added.

The delegation also visited the school of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Ghana, Legon and the Nursing and Midwifery Training School in Koforidua to acquaint themselves with the various courses being taught in the institutions.