Docia Kisseih

Since nursing education in Ghana was not yet fully developed, in order to be eligible for senior posts under colonial rule[4][5] she had to spend some time in the 1950s training for further qualifications in England.

[6] In 1961 she was made Chief Nursing Officer of the newly independent Ghana: her job title inherited from the earlier British system.

As a first step a two-year "post-basic" diploma program to train nursing educators and administrators was established in 1963 through a threeway agreement between the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Ghanaian government.

[5] At the same time she oversaw a move away from the traditional British hospital-based system to a more community-based kind of healthcare better suited to Ghanaian society.

[5] She "transformed and modernised nursing education" with "strong imaginative leadership and initiative", according to the citation accompanying an honorary Doctor of Laws degree conferred on her 89th birthday.

[8][9] Her honorary degree was conferred ceremonially at Docia Kisseih's home because of her frailty and she died later that month, in August 2008.