By Stephen N. Tokpah
-Bong (freelance)
The faculty of Nursing at the Bong County Technical College has capped, badged, strapped, and pinned 149 nursing students in the County.
The Bong County Technical College was established by an Act of Legislation by the 53rd Legislature of Liberia on July 29, 2015.
The creation of the College was part of Liberia’s broader initiative to enhance higher education and technical training in the Country, particularly in the wake of years of civil conflict that had significantly impacted educational institutions.
The Dean of the Bong County Technical College Nursing Department, Mrs. Folo B. Sonah-Siakor, expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Liberia Board for Nursing and Midwifery for providing the Bong County Technical College Nursing Department the opportunity to be certificated.
She said the Nursing Department of the BCTC is placed amongst other nursing programs in Liberia to operate and practice as an undergraduate program because of the well-trained, capable educators and lecturers who are seated to research for onward transition to the learners placed in their care.
The department would not have been heard about without the intervention of the Liberia Board for Nursing and Midwifery. “We remain committed to upholding the confidence imposed in the faculty and staff of the department.”
She said there are 106 females and 43 males who have gone through the fundamentals of nursing and have satisfactorily completed the coursework, and they are allowed to be capped and badged.
However, the Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Health, Martha C.T. Morris, who served as keynote speaker, admonished the nursing students to uphold the standards of nursing ethics.
She told the students to care for their patients because their major priority is to save lives.
She further acknowledged that the nursing profession is unique to the development of Bong County, Liberia, and the world at large.
Within this context, nursing draws its worth and spirit from motives based on the love of one’s fellow men and women who are made in the image and likeness of God.
As a social service to the community, nursing responds to the needs of the sick, poor, and disabled and promotes wellness as the pre-eminent goal of nursing care.
Madam Morris, has at the same time, called on the Administration of the Bong County Technical College to add computer science to the nursing discipline in order to give students who are studying nursing computer knowledge before their graduation, something she believes gives students the 21st-century nursing education.
The Deputy Minister for Administration used the occasion to call on citizens and residents of Bong County to hold together and push for the development of the County.
The ceremony was attended by several government officials, local leaders, school administrators, and parents of the students, among others.
