Free N&MC Ghana Exam Flashcards

The Act that established the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana (N&MC) in Part III, alongside Ghana's Medical and Dental, Pharmacy, Allied Health, and Psychology Councils, with the statutory object of securing the highest standards of nursing and midwifery training and practice in the public interest.

Covers Registered General Nursing, Registered Midwifery, and Registered Mental Nursing, plus starred specialties such as Registered Community Mental Nursing, Registered Public Health Nursing, and Registered Paediatric Nursing, per the Council's approved examination fee schedule.

One-year specialty courses examined after basic registration, including Public Health Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Peri-Operative/Critical Care Nursing, and Ear, Nose and Throat Nursing.

Covers Nurse Assistants, Clinical (NAC) and Nurse Assistants, Preventive (NAP). Passing candidates receive an Auxiliary Identification Number (AIN), not the PIN issued to Basic and Post-Basic Programme graduates.

A candidate must complete the required theoretical instruction and clinical experience, pass the examination conducted by the college, attain satisfactory performance in clinical nursing, and pay the stipulated examination fee before sitting the Council's licensing exam.

The Council holds licensing examinations for its programmes in February/March, June/July, August, and November/December every year.

N&MC Ghana's route for nurses, midwives, and nurse assistants trained outside Ghana: the Council first reviews credentials (transcript, professional certificates, verification from the original council, English proficiency), then the applicant sits a written exam held twice a year, in June and December, completes a three-month practical orientation in an accredited hospital, and is registered on satisfactory performance.

Candidates who fail a Council examination are allowed to rewrite until they pass; the Council states there is no limit on the number of re-sits.

Under the 2024 approved schedule, resit fees rise with papers failed: GHc 213 for one paper, GHc 299 for two, GHc 405 for three, and GHc 640 (the full exam fee) for more than three. Every candidate also pays a separate GHc 13 fee for checking examination results.

N&MC Ghana issues a Professional Identification Number (PIN) to newly qualified nurses and midwives, and an Auxiliary Identification Number (AIN) to newly qualified Nurse Assistants; both come with a certificate of registration.

Council-published clinical reference manuals, first issued in 1996, spanning General Nursing, Midwifery, Community Psychiatric Nursing, Mental Health Nursing, Public Health Nursing, Paediatric Nursing, and Pain Management.

Written papers are taken on computer at accredited centres; schools without an accredited lab send candidates to one that is. Answers save at every stage and can be changed before submission, and results are released later through the schools, not on screen. The care plan stays paper-based and the case study is still written and submitted, while examiners score practical tasks on tablets.

A Council publication that students buy with the indexing package (GHc 21 in the 2024 fee schedule) and receive again with their badge at registration. It sets the conduct standards behind the Council's Act 857 duties to prescribe professional standards and exercise disciplinary powers over practitioners.

A patient's voluntary agreement to a procedure after understanding its purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives; the nurse's role is to confirm understanding and witness consent, not to replace the provider's explanation.

Health information shared by or about a patient is disclosed only to those with a legitimate care or legal need to know. The duty applies in every care setting and outside work, so a nurse does not confirm a diagnosis to relatives, neighbours, or uninvolved colleagues without the patient's consent.

A framework for when to clean hands during patient care: before patient contact, before an aseptic task, after body-fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient, and after touching the patient's surroundings.

Infection-prevention practices applied to every patient regardless of diagnosis: hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, safe injection and sharps handling, and safe handling of contaminated linen and waste.

Records must be accurate, timely, and objective, reflecting what was observed and done, not what is assumed, because the chart is the legal record of care and supports safe handover.

Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation: a structured format used internationally for escalating a clinical concern or handing over a patient clearly and consistently between shifts or care levels.

Right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, and right time, confirmed against the prescription chart and at least two patient identifiers, then documented after giving. Each check blocks a different error: similar names, look-alike drugs, decimal slips, wrong route, and missed or doubled doses.

N&MC Ghana describes Nurse Assistants as providing care under the supervision of a Registered Nurse or Midwife. The registered practitioner who delegates stays accountable: assess the patient first, delegate only tasks within the assistant's training, and check the outcome. Assessment and clinical judgement are not delegated.

When a danger sign needs a higher level of care, Ghana's maternal-newborn protocol calls for documenting the care given, counselling the mother or family on the referral, and keeping the patient warm (skin-to-skin for a baby) during transfer.

Defines the independent, dependent, and interdependent duties a registered nurse or midwife is competent to perform, building on the legal basis in L.I. 683 (1971) and reviewed every three to five years.

A nurse or midwife who identifies signs of abuse, neglect, or exploitation must document objectively, protect the patient's immediate safety, and escalate through the facility's protection and reporting channels.

Airway, then Breathing, then Circulation: the order for assessing and acting on an acutely unwell or unconscious patient, because an unprotected airway threatens life fastest.

Scores consciousness from 3 (unresponsive) to 15 (fully alert) by summing eye-opening (1-4), verbal (1-5), and motor (1-6) responses; for example, GCS 10 might be recorded as E3V4M3.

A bedside risk screen for patients with suspected infection: respiratory rate of 22 or more per minute, systolic blood pressure of 100 mmHg or less, and altered mentation (GCS below 15). Two or more signs flag high risk of poor outcome. The 2021 Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines advise against using it as the only sepsis screening tool.

Hypovolemic shock follows major fluid or blood loss and needs volume replacement; septic shock follows infection with vasodilation and needs fluids plus antibiotics and vasopressor support. Both drop blood pressure but for different reasons.

Anaphylactic shock is a severe allergic reaction causing airway swelling and vasodilation, treated first with intramuscular adrenaline; neurogenic shock follows spinal cord injury that disrupts sympathetic tone, causing low blood pressure with a slow, not fast, heart rate.

Stage 1 is intact skin with non-blanchable redness: pressing does not make it fade. Stage 2 is partial-thickness skin loss, a shallow open ulcer or a serum-filled blister, with no visible fat, slough, or deeper tissue. Catching Stage 1 on routine skin checks is the chance to prevent breakdown.

Stage 3 exposes subcutaneous fat, possibly with slough or tunneling, but no bone, tendon, or muscle. Stage 4 goes deeper, exposing or allowing palpation of muscle, tendon, ligament, or bone.

An unstageable injury's true depth is hidden under slough or eschar. A deep tissue pressure injury looks like intact or non-intact skin with persistent deep red, maroon, or purple discoloration from damage to the tissue underneath.

Three verification phases: Sign In before anaesthesia (identity, site, consent, allergy risk), Time Out before incision (team introductions, antibiotic timing, critical-event review), and Sign Out before the patient leaves the theatre (instrument and sponge counts, specimen labelling).

Advanced age, impaired mobility or gait, sedating or blood-pressure-lowering medication, a prior fall, confusion, and unfamiliar or poorly lit surroundings all raise a patient's fall risk and should trigger preventive precautions.

Before starting a transfusion, confirm the patient's identity against the blood unit and request, check blood group and product compatibility, and monitor closely for reaction signs, such as fever, chills, rash, or breathlessness, especially in the first minutes.

Hypoglycemia presents fast, with sweating, shakiness, confusion, and a rapid pulse, and needs prompt glucose. Hyperglycemia develops more slowly, with thirst, frequent urination, and, if severe, fruity-smelling breath from ketosis.

Ghana's Safe Motherhood Protocol lists danger signs in pregnancy including swelling of the face, hands, or feet; severe headache or blurred vision; severe abdominal pain; persistent vomiting; jaundice; ruptured membranes; vaginal bleeding; fever; and absent fetal movement, any of which call for urgent review.

Ghana's protocol includes heavy or sudden vaginal bleeding, breathing difficulty, convulsions or loss of consciousness, foul-smelling discharge, a painful or tender surgical wound, and abnormal behaviour among the maternal danger signs after birth that need urgent care.

Ghana's Safe Motherhood Protocol defines PPH as vaginal bleeding of 500 mL or more before, during, or after delivery of the placenta, or any blood loss that makes the mother's condition deteriorate. WHO's 2025 PPH guidelines add an earlier trigger: measured loss of 300 mL or more with any abnormal haemodynamic sign, such as pulse over 100 or systolic BP under 100 mmHg.

Ghana's protocol calls for 10 IU of oxytocin given intramuscularly within one minute of the baby's birth, followed by controlled cord traction, to reduce the risk of postpartum haemorrhage.

Rates a newborn's colour, heart rate, reflex response, muscle tone, and respiration, each scored 0-2, at 1 and 5 minutes after birth for a total of 0-10; scores of 7-10 are reassuring.

The WHO partograph's action line sits four hours to the right of the alert line during active labour; a labour curve crossing it signals that a decision, such as augmentation, amniotomy, or caesarean section, is needed.

Hypertension of 140/90 mmHg or higher arising after 20 weeks of pregnancy becomes pre-eclampsia when protein is also found in the urine. Ghana's Safe Motherhood Protocol grades it severe at a diastolic of 110 mmHg or more (systolic 160 or more) or proteinuria of 3+ or more.

Ghana's protocol treats a fetal heart rate below 120 beats per minute, or an irregular fetal heart rate, during labour as a sign of possible fetal distress needing urgent action.

Ghana's protocol flags a newborn breathing rate under 30, or 60 or more, breaths per minute, or severe chest in-drawing and grunting, as danger signs needing oxygen and urgent referral.

Ghana's newborn care protocol calls for chloramphenicol eye drops or 0.5% tetracycline eye ointment in both eyes within the first one to two hours of life to prevent eye infection.

Ghana's protocol gives 0.5 mg intramuscular Vitamin K1 to babies weighing under 2.0 kg, and 1.0 mg to babies weighing 2.0 kg or more, to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

For a previously unimmunized woman, Ghana's protocol gives five doses: dose 1 at booking (no protection yet), dose 2 four weeks later (1-3 years' protection), dose 3 six months after that (at least 5 years), dose 4 at least a year later (at least 10 years), and dose 5 at least a year after that (lifelong protection).

WHO and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding, breastmilk only, with no other food, water, or drink except prescribed medicine or oral rehydration solution, for a baby's first 6 months of life.

Ghana's mental health law: it established the Mental Health Authority, sets separate procedures for voluntary and involuntary admission and treatment, and creates a Mental Health Review Tribunal that reviews involuntary admissions and long-stay voluntary patients, protecting the rights of people with mental disorders.