Docia Kisseih

Docia Angelina Naki Kisseih (1919 to 2008) was a Ghanaian nurse, midwife and educator, born at Krobo Odumase in the Manya Krobo district. She trained in nursing and midwifery at the Korle Bu maternity hospital from 1940, spent time in England in the 1950s on further qualifications, and in 1961 became the first Ghanaian Chief Nursing Officer after independence. She helped set up a post-basic diploma programme for nursing educators in 1963 with the World Health Organization and UNICEF, moved training toward community-based care, and wrote a curriculum emphasising public health and maternal and child health. She lectured at the University of Ghana from 1975 to 1981 and took a doctorate at Boston University in 1980, the first Ghanaian nurse with a postgraduate degree. She founded and first led the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, served as vice-president of the International Council of Nurses from 1973 to 1977, and had her portrait on the 100 cedi banknote in 1986.