Salary of nurses in Ghana: 2020
In the past, nursing was a lucrative career but currently, being a nurse in Ghana has become a challenge. Over the past years, nursing have been striking because of poor pay and the government has banned nurses from seeking job opportunities abroad. With this kind of attention, we cannot help but wonder, what is the salary of nurses in Ghana?
Source: UGC
According, a report by BBC, the government is against qualified nurses traveling to outside countries to look for better employment opportunities. Their reason for this ban is, they have enough nurses and so it is not necessary for them to stay under bond. The bond scheme refused more applicants back in 2014 and currently it takes 4 years to get an actual qualification as a nurse.Those that are already in the scheme have to take 5 years in service. If a nurse does not want to do the five years, they have to pay for each year. Each year is 422 cedis. This is very expensive and not everyone can afford such kind of cash. So what is the average salary of nurses in Ghana?
Studying for nursing in campus is not an easy task. Nursing is a very delicate profession and the hospitals cannot do without them, but due to these delays, many nurses opt to look for jobs abroad. Unfortunately one has to pay the fine or else they will not work abroad. According to an article from 2014, professional nurses in Ghana are 20,400 and they are paid 400 dollars in a month.
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For the salary of community health nurses in Ghana; salary of registered nurses in Ghana depends on the level of learning. Based on their level, nurses in Ghana earn between $3,600 and $4,800 in a year after taxation but due to the increasing food and transportation costs, nurses are obliged to take second jobs in private health and work back to back shifts. They wok approximately 15 hours and 18 hours in a day. This is very little compared to other countries. The nurses work for long hours because at all times, patients go to hospitals. Salary of a diploma nurse in Ghana should be increased, as well as the salary of degree nurses in Ghana. Nonetheless, the salaries detailed are from 2010, the current salaries of nurses is unknown.
You can only benefit from the government after doing your time or paying up. This has made the Ghana hospitals to be at a bad condition. An example is the Korle bu hospital in Ghana which a decade ago was reported to have less nurses, and frustrated nurses who end up being rude on patients. In some cases, patients get worse with diseases while waiting to be served.
Based on a 2015 report, every year, approximately 400 nurses get into Ghana’s job market but approximately twice the number, 700 nurses left for the UK; seeking for nursing jobs. Nurses opt seeking jobs abroad because in Ghana the salaries are quite low and Ghana has a high cost of living. In the UK National Health Service, a newly qualified nurse is paid more than 21,000 Euros annually and they have the chance to earn overtime. This is more than $2,695 monthly. However these figures are from 2015, the current pay for the nurses is unknown.
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The salary of a staff nurse in Ghana, the salary of psychiatric nurses in Ghana and the salary of general nurses in Ghana is also low. They are paid depending on institutions. In this category, staff nurses and psychiatric nurses earn more than general nurses but based on the recent strike, in 2015, their pay is not good either.
The salary structure of nurses in Ghana needs to be revised because more students are taking nursing in the universities but there are less jobs in the country. There should be a platform of fairness because only the rich people will make it to go abroad to search for careers after paying for the bond scheme. There is a number of jobless nurses because the government can only support registered nurses. Salary of enrolled nurses in Ghana is also supposed to be looked into.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
