Nurses and midwives are a formidable group of health professionals that form over 50 percent of the health workforce in every country. Academic preparation of these workforces has evolved over the years from apprenticeship levels through assistance to a current cohort of highly educated workforce with diploma, first, second and third degrees from many public and private educational institutions. Graduation from institutions of learning becomes the initial step as nurses and midwives into career development and serves as the springboard for fulfilling career diversification into what is commonly set into clinical, education and research and administration and management.

Regulation is central to effective practice in every profession and has long been applied as a means to public health protection against malpractices and misconduct. Global professional bodies such as international Confederation of Midwives (ICM), International Council of Nurses (ICN) and governments have policies, guidelines and ACTs of parliament that direct regulatory systems. Regulation is a mechanism to raise the status of midwives and nurses to ensure that they have authority to act on their own professional judgements within their scope of practice.

In order to attain the Sector’s objective of ensuring affordable, equitable, easily accessible and Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) recognize human resource for health (HRH) as a backbone for national development. In 2020, three critical documents of the health sector were released to guide UHC-related actions and their implementation