A group of Ghanaian Community Health Nurses have threatened to lay their tools down if the government turns-a-deaf-ear to their plight to revert its name from Nurse Assistants to its original name (Community Health Nurses).

The group has issued a two weeks ultimatum for the name to be reverted; else they will embark on a nationwide strike to register their displeasure.

They cited that the change of name is a denigration of their job titles—as Nursing Assistants are not entitled to benefit from conditions of service.

The National President of the Community Health Nurses Association, Esther Bamfo said their attention was not drawn before the change of the name took effective; and also the change of the name entails demotion on their positions.

“It is not just about the name that has been changed, we have been demoted and that is not fair,” she said on Adom FM’s ‘Dwaso Nsem’.

“When we first heard about the name change, we thought it was just a rumour, and then we got a letter from our regulators.

“We will have no other option than to embark on a strike if we don’t hear from them in two weeks,” she added.

However, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which is mandated to establish standards & provide guidelines for the development of curricula for the training of nurse assistants, nurses & midwives says, their decision was based on the 2013 Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 857.