Ghanaian medical students have been urged to be innovative and not solely concentrate on what they can derive from the system.

Dr Kwesi Nyan Amissah-Arthur, a Senior Clinical lecturer and Consultant Vitreoretinal Surgeon at the University of Ghana Medical School, who was addressing the Ninth Matriculation ceremony of the Accra College of Medicine (ACM), asked the matriculants to remain focused throughout their training.

He encouraged them to work hard on the added value they would bring on board, remain unique throughout their profession so that people they encounter would identify the extra value they have ,and how they would enhance the set of skills at their disposal.


He said though knowledge and skills were the essential values, patients and colleagues would require of them, the ability to listen, comfort, explain conditions, and to console others were as important as making the right diagnosis or operating on a patient safely and effectively.

“Treating patients while shouting at them and not looking them in the face is very different from explaining conditions and problems to them, and providing them with enough contact time,” he explained.

He said the extra value they would add as professionals could be simple or complex, be life-changing or just a way to keep a smile on the face of an old sick person.

“Be assured that you will find more and greater rewards in all you do because the extra value you bring to the table will be noticed and rewarded by all those you encounter,” he said.

The President of ACM, Prof Afua A Jectey Hesse, described it as a great joy to hear about the splendid performance of doctors trained by ACM. She said testimonies abound in the hospitals where their trained doctors worked.

She said by the quality of training received in the country, Ghanaian doctors were in high demand throughout the world.

She, therefore, called on students to work hard and remain focused in their studies, adding that ACM was poised to train more doctors for the country, the sub-region and beyond.

Twenty-seven students who were enrolled this year, were from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Canada.

A matriculant, Ms Nana Abena Ohemeng, in her speech, asked her colleagues to remember that they were enrolled to study to enable them to make positive impact in the world.

“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also love for humanity,” she said.

By Raymond Kyekye