A ‘Centre of Nursing Excellence’ set up by the Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health (PNF) through a special grant by GlaxoSmithKline was inaugurated by Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister, Sindh here on Tuesday.
The chief minister announced complete support for the project and appreciated the services of PNF for maternal health in Pakistan. He also announced Kohi Goth, Deh Landhi, where the Centre has been set up as a model health and education village and said that his government will do what ever it can to uplift the health, education and infrastructure conditions in that area.
Introducing the project, Dr Sher Shah Syed, PNF’s Programme Director said that the initiative was aimed at improving and strengthening the quality of nursing education in the country through an extensive training programme that develops the teaching capabilities of the highest potential nursing faculty from across Pakistan. The first batch of 31 nursing instructors had been admitted in October 2008 and their classes have commenced a few days ago, he informed.
Dr Syed lauded the contribution of GlaxoSmithKline, which will provide sustained funding and support for the project for three years after which the Centre will become fully self-sustained.
He was of the view that despite the ‘mushrooming’ of nursing schools in the country there was little focus on leadership, critical reasoning, case management, specialist training or additional skill development such as computer literacy and communication skills. He expressed his concern that there were very few qualified instructors in the country and there was urgent need to raise standards of nursing education in Pakistan and to increase the number of qualified nursing instructors.
Dr Sher Shah Syed informed there was a serious shortfall, by international standards, of qualified nurses in Pakistan with an estimated one nurse for about 4000 patients. Like midwives, many nurses do not have a formal job description and no clear guidance on tasks and responsibilities. Whilst the number of properly qualified instructors was very few, a majority was employed as nursing teachers without appropriate qualifications.
He hoped that the Centre of Nursing Excellence would improve and strengthen the system of nursing education by significantly increasing the number of nursing instructors in Pakistan and informed that 60 women will be selected each year to participate in a high quality programme which will train them to become effective nursing instructors.
He said that the trained nursing teachers at the Centre would enter the workforce with updated, stronger skills. They will raise the standard of education imparted to the nursing students and will have a direct impact on the quality of and access to the maternal and child care services in the underserved communities to which they belong.
Salman Burney, Managing Director, GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan, Professor Tipu Sultan, Principal Bahria Medical College, Dr Samrina Hashmi, General Secretary, PMA, Karachi also spoke on the occasion.