Consultation and Technical Assistance
The Regional Nursing Body is an Organization of Chief Nursing Officers, which is administratively attached to the Health Section within the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM).
Dean Marla Salmon continues to have a key role in the Caribbean and was instrumental in the creation and inauguration of the Johnson & Johnson sponsored recruitment and retention of Caribbean nurses campaign ‘Year of the Caribbean Nurse.’ The LCCIN was a lead partner in the development and launching of this campaign and is exploring the potential to build on these relationships (CNOs, Caribbean Regional Nursing Body, PAHO) to develop other initiatives within in the region. Led by Dean Salmon, LCCIN continues to work to strengthen nursing and midwifery in the Caribbean by working with the Caribbean Regional Nursing Body and with the CNOs of individual countries. LCCIN is addressing workforce capacity by:
- Brokering and supporting the Johnson & Johnson regional campaign for enhancing recruitment, retention, and the public image of nurses.
- Providing technical assistance for nursing and midwifery leadership development.
- Helping the RNB to develop policies for the ethical management of migration (LCCIN continues to host a website for the RNB).
- Improving pre-service nursing and midwifery education through curriculum development and standardization (This is in the exploratory phase, with possible collaboration with the International Confederation of Midwives. A needs assessment of nurse midwifery schools in the CARICOM region is underway and the goal is to present a workshop meeting their needs at the ICM Americas conference in Trinidad and Tobago, April 24-25, 2004).
- Promoting scholarly and student exchanges in the undergraduate and graduate education of nurses who will return home and assume leadership roles.
- Providing consultation and technical assistance around HIV/AIDS, a severe threat in countries such as Haiti and Surinam that are not receiving international attention.
The Kenya Workforce Project addresses two key dimensions of capacity building and maintenance to address major health threats in the developing world - particularly Africa and those countries seriously imperiled by HIV/AIDS.
- The Kenya Workforce Nurses Study, funded by ASPH/CDC continues to work closely with the Kenyan consultants to describe and analyze baseline data for nurses working across the various sectors in Kenya.
- The first dimension is the development of the workforce data and analytic capacity necessary for effective workforce planning and response. To this end, the project is developing a multi-sectoral, collaborative, computerized workforce data system that will enable Kenyans to address planning relating to both supply and requirements sides of nursing and midwifery workforce. Both the process and the actual system are intended to serve as models for other countries.
- From the supply side, data includes numbers of nurses educated and licensed, age of current nurses, currently licensed nurses not working as nurses, nurses migrating out of Kenya and nurses who have died. Information is also being gathered about where the nurses are employed.
- Concurrently, the HIV/AIDS crisis and re-emerging conditions such as malaria and tuberculosis have increased the demand for health care provision in Kenya. HIV/AIDS has not only increased the demand for care, it has also diminished the workforce as nurses and other health professionals contract the disease. In Kenya, as in many other African countries, access to reliable data regarding the impact of migration and HIV/AIDS on the workforce is not available. LCCIN technical assistance includes estimating the impact of HIV/AIDS on the workforce to help mobilize resources for treatment and protection of the workforce.
- The second dimension is the assessment of the impact of HIV/AIDs on the current nursing workforce. This will provide the information necessary to begin to quantify and assess the actual cost of the disease with respect to nurses/midwives and their capacity to provide services. This information is crucial for developing and funding strategies that will support the prevention and treatment of the disease in health workers and their patients. The insights gained from this portion of the project have important implications and potential applications to other African countries - and portions of the developing world experiencing similar challenges.
Collaboration among Kenyan stakeholders takes place within the National Joint Steering Committee and continues to be the critical component. This project is country based and driven, and is a microcosm of nursing workforce issues globally. The project is committed to the judicious dissemination of information in Africa and elsewhere.
The LCCIN is working with the Rollins School of Public Health, Save the Children, and the CDC to design, test and disseminate a strategy that integrates Safe Water System/Household Hygiene (SWS/HH) into an existing successful community level health development model. The main components include capacity building (nurses/health assistants, community based organizations, families), materials development and adaptation, competency-based education (cascade training model, district hospital to health posts to community and home e.g., linked with home-based lifesaving skills program), monitoring and evaluation, and local product development and social marketing. This also serves to provide opportunity for student learning (Emory students, in-country students).
Faculty member Dr. Joyce Murray is the Director of the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative (EPHTI) of The Carter Center. The goals of the EPHTI, in partnership with seven universities in Ethiopia, are to: (1) Institutionalize capacity building by strengthening the teaching staff of the interdisciplinary health sciences faculties; (2) Improve practical training by producing health learning materials, such as training modules, for teaching multidisciplinary students about major diseases and health problems in Ethiopia; (3) Advance the recently launched Health Extension Package (HEP) of the Ministry of Health, which will provide basic health services to 50% of the population currently without care; and (4) Teach disaster preparedness and sustainable development. One project of the Initiative is the development and implementation of 2-week workshops on teaching-learning for health sciences faculty including nurses, physicians, health officers, medical laboratory technicians, and environmental health faculty. Topics of the health learning materials produced by the Initiative have included: healthcare-related issues, infectious diseases, nutrition, maternal and child health, mental health, reproductive health, water and sanitation, and risk behavior modification, among others.
LCCIN has developed collaborative ties with the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Center of Rollins School of Public Health that will result in student projects serving people with Filariasis in some of the least developed countries in the world.
|
