By Conan Businge

THE nurses’ boss has blamed politicians for interfering in their operations. “We need independence in our operations and political peddling brings down our quality,” said Marcella Terimuk, the chairperson of Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examinations Board.

She said principals of nursing schools are pushed to the limit by politicians.
“Some principals are scared of loosing their jobs and they end up making mistakes under pressure,” Terimuk said at the opening of a training for nurses at Namulanda on Entebbe Road on Wednesday.


She also called for more funding for the board by the Government.
Meanwhile, the health and education ministries have for a decade been locked in a row over the control of training schools for nurses and midwives.

The institutions were transferred from the health to the education ministry in 1998, following a World Bank proposal.

The stand-off between the education ministry and the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council on setting the final exams paralysed the registration of nurses and midwives who had passed exams set by their institutions.

Plans are also underway to set examinations guidelines; of which will be used by all training institutions.

The first ever national examinations for Nurses and Midwives begin started in May 2006.

The new examination board was established by the education ministry to conduct the examinations twice a year; in May and November.