review · Journal of Education Society and Behavioural Science
Rapid growth in Ghanaian nursing and midwifery training has boosted student numbers, but has not reliably produced clinically competent graduates, fair workforce deployment or timely jobs. The sector faces a complex coordination challenge across student admissions, teaching staff, curricula, clinical placements, preceptor training, simulation facilities and public-sector hiring. Documented issues include overcrowded clinical sites, inconsistent supervision, insufficient feedback, uneven instructor preparation and gaps between theory and practice. To ensure training quality, admission numbers must align with available training resources, faculty numbers, practical placement capacity and actual health sector demand, rather than expanding unchecked. Protecting access for applicants from underserved areas remains critical. Urgent priorities include establishing national accreditation for clinical training sites, creating shared simulation hubs, training clinical mentors, enhancing educator skills and building linked data systems to monitor graduates from education into the healthcare workforce.
Expanding healthcare education without adequate clinical training environments risks producing nurses and midwives who lack practical competence for safe patient care. Aligning student intakes with real clinical supervision, simulation resources and healthcare job openings ensures public investment translates into effective, well-distributed healthcare providers, especially in underserved regions where reliable maternal and general care are most urgently needed.
The abstract outlines systemic and policy recommendations rather than a direct commercial product, but highlights clear operational demand for shared simulation hubs, digital infrastructure and integrated education-workforce tracking platforms. Potential users include nursing regulatory bodies, health training colleges and regional health directorates. These solutions sit at an early conceptual planning stage within proposed reform frameworks, requiring dedicated technical development, public procurement and institutional adoption before reaching practical deployment.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Ghana has expanded nursing and midwifery education to increase the supply of health professionals, yet educational growth has not consistently translated into clinically prepared graduates, equitable deployment or timely employment. This critical narrative review examines how access can be widened without weakening academic, clinical and professional preparedness. Literature published from 1 January 2000 to 5 June 2026 was identified through accessible scholarly indexes, citation searching and authoritative institutional sources. Evidence was appraised for design quality, measurement validity, geographical coverage, consistency and relevance to the education-to-workforce pathway. The synthesis shows that Ghana’s central challenge is not a simple choice between enrolment growth and quality. It is a coordination problem across admissions, faculty capacity, curriculum delivery, clinical-placement density, preceptor preparation, simulation and digital infrastructure, regulation, transition support and funded employment. Ghanaian studies consistently identify overcrowded placements, variable supervision, weak feedback, uneven educator preparation and theory–practice discontinuities, but most are cross-sectional, qualitative or based on self-reported experience. Consequently, confidence is stronger regarding the presence of system constraints than regarding the causal effect of particular reforms on objective competence or patient outcomes. Access should therefore be defined as effective access: fair entry, supported progression, exposure to sufficient accredited learning opportunities, attainment of demonstrable competence and a realistic transition into appropriately distributed employment. A capacity-linked expansion model is proposed in which admission ceilings are informed by faculty, simulation, placement and labour-market capacity, while equity safeguards prevent quality regulation from excluding applicants from underserved regions or disadvantaged backgrounds. Immediate priorities include national clinical-site accreditation, protected and trained preceptorship, shared simulation hubs, stronger educator development, longitudinal graduate tracking and integrated education–workforce data. Expansion remains necessary, but its public value depends on whether every additional place is accompanied by the learning and employment conditions required for safe, respectful and context-responsive practice.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.9734/jesbs/2026/v39i51513
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
