Review of Reflection within the Nursing and Midwifery Curricula in Ghana and the Implications for Revalidation

Outputs from this work, undertaken in collaboration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (N&MC) in the previous phase of the Building the Future International Health Workforce (BFIW) programme, include a study of nursing and midwifery education and training and the production of the Strengthening the Capacity and Quality of Nursing and Midwifery Teaching Faculty in Ghana report, as well as a desk-based review of nursing and midwifery regulation in Ghana, and the production of the Review of Regulations of Nursing and Midwifery Practice report. A key recommendation from this work was that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (N&MC) of Ghana move from a relicensing process for registered nurses and midwives to one of revalidation.
Both studies also recognised that reflective practice is an essential component of revalidation. It was therefore agreed that it would be important to understand if and how reflection is currently taught in the undergraduate (diploma and degree) nursing and midwifery curricula and how this could then be embedded in clinical practice.
In the current phase, a first workshop facilitated by the Ghana N&MC, with the support of UoH and LSTM, with a diverse group of stakeholders in December 2022 focused on the review of regulatory standards with a view to building consensus on refinement/amendments of standards and processes, including moving from relicensing to revalidation.
A second workshop followed in January 2023. This workshop was again facilitated by the Ghana N&MC, with support from UoH and LSTM, with the aim of reviewing and strengthening the incorporation of “reflection” into nursing and midwifery education, training and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes and revalidation processes.