A call for articles to go in the World Health Day Supplement was recieved from The Nation newspaper last week and no one seemed terribly interested in doing anything for it but I thought is was such as waste of an opportunity to get infomation about the project out there that I decided to try and scratch something together.
As the 9am deadline looked this morning several mini-disasters unfolded - the document mysteriously unattached itself from an email, the photo wouldn't load, the network crashed and then we found we had to pay stacks to enter it but this is where Malawi timing comes in terribly handy, a half hour here or there doesn't make much difference and so it was all alright in the end.
The Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi (NMCM) is committed to ensuring delivery of quality nursing and midwifery services throughout the country. It has recently published several new policy documents including midwifery standards, scope of practice and two procedure manuals which will help guide both qualified staff and students in their work in caring for the public. The NMCM has also launched its own website where people can access a wealth of information on the Council and its role in regulating nursing and midwifery practice.
The Minister of Health, The Honourable Mr Khumbo Kachali MP officially launching the website at a ceremony in Lilongwe on 5th March 2009. (I just couldn't resist using the picture of those net curtains!)
The Council does acknowledge that healthcare services within Malawi are under great pressure not only due to staffing and resource issues but from the overwhelming need to access care by a population suffering from many devastating diseases. In order to help nurse midwives meet this need, the Council is also currently in the process of establishing a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme which will see nurses and midwives, for the first time in Malawi, being given the chance to engage in a co-ordinated post-qualification education process that will allow them maintain, improve and gain additional knowledge and skills to assist them in their professional working lives whether caring for the sick and needy, training students or leading profession through the 21st century.
Continuing Professional Development is a relatively new concept in Malawi but has great potential to support the development of an improved healthcare system. The NMCM is conducting a trial run of its CPD programme in the coming months in a selection of health facilities up and down the country to ensure that the proposed framework is effective and to demonstrate the benefits of engaging in continuous learning. Once the NMCM CPD Programme rolls out nationwide in 2010, all nurses and midwives will be thoroughly oriented to how to meet their CPD requirements through a combination of sensitisation meetings conducted by the NMCM and institutional briefings.
CPD will be mandatory for all nurses and midwives in Malawi, in accordance with Section 31a and 31b of the Nurses and Midwives Act which states, ‘that every person registered under this Act shall attend a refresher course or in-service education within a specified time period’
The NMCM believes that learning never stops and encourages all nurse midwives, on World Health Day 2009, to embrace the idea of CPD and use it to help make themselves the best nurse midwife they be!
For more information log on to http://www.nmcm.org.mw/ from April 2009
1 comment:
Well said. Great piece of work. Congratulations on your new role in the media.
Post a Comment