Janet Museveni directs on admission of students to nursing course

First Lady and education minister Janet Kataaha Museveni has directed health institutions to limit the number of students admitted into nursing and midwifery programs to address overcrowding in training facilities.

Speaking at the release of the June 2024 results for nurses and Midwives, Mrs Museveni emphasized that Uganda currently lacks resources to expand or build enough hospitals to accommodate the growing number of trainees.

According to her, reducing student intake is a practical solution to the overcrowding problem, which she attributed to inadequate planning.

“Therefore, the wise, prudent, and easiest intervention that is within our power now is to reduce the number of students admitted in the first place,” Mrs Museveni remarked on Thursday.

“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,” Mrs Museveni added.

Her directive followed concerns raised by the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination Board (UNMEB) chairperson Christine Nimwesiga, who decried congestion in health facilities used for training.

“Therefore, the board recommends that the MoES studies this area and comprehensively comes up with policy interventions that will maintain quality health education and training,” she said in her remarks.

Nurses and midwives post better performance

Meanwhile, the nurses and midwives have posted a better performance in the June 2024 examinations that were conducted in 132 examination centers across the country.

UNMEB Executive Secretary Hellen Mukakarisa said 18,470 learners were assessed, out of which 13,775 were females and 4,695 male final candidates.

Of the total candidates, 15,848 were in certificate programs while 2,622 candidates were in diploma programmes.

At least 17,652 candidates (15.848 certificates and 2,479 Diplomas) passed the examinations while 771 candidates were ungraded and will be required to repeat the examinations.

Mukakarisa observed that June 2024 candidates performed better than those of last year.

The board observed that overall, the candidates for the certificate in nursing performed better as compared to their counterparts for the certificate in midwifery and the certificate in mental health nursing.

“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 told journalists.