MoH Infusing Life Into Nursing Education

THE RECENT GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THE THIRD BATCH OF NURSING
TUTORS is akin to emergency blood transfusion into a sector which has been suffering
increasing life-threatening haemorrhage in the last seven years.
Like a patient suffering perennial blood loss, the local health sector has been bleeding skills
gladly gobbled up regionally and internationally.
The predictable national anemia had to be countered before the sector slipped into inevitable
coma, then death and rigor mortis.

Midwifery Tutor attached to the New Amsterdam School of Nursing (NASON),Belinda Blair

Health officials jumped into action.
With backing from the ever-reliable Pan American Health Organisation /World Health
Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and University of Miami they crafted a curriculum to ensure revival
of the sector infused with irrepressible life.
And a sign of that buoyancy was evident at the graduation ceremony.
“I am happy to report that I was one of the 25 privileged students who was (among) the first to
commence the certificate in Basic Nursing Education Programme in the year 2015-2016
sponsored by the Division of Health Sciences Education of the MOH in collaboration with
PAHO/WHO and the University of Miami School of Nursing and Allied Studies,” said Belinda
Blair, who has since been elevated as midwifery Tutor attached to the New Amsterdam School
of Nursing (NASON)

A participant receiving her certificate from the CMO

According to Blair, “I was also to be granted the opportunity to visit the University in Miami to
observe best practices of which I am grateful for,” Blair told her colleague Tutors.
She recalled the anemic condition of the nursing education programme when she was seconded
to NASON as a tutor, at a time when there was a massive migration of nurses and nursing
educators and the school was bereft of educators.
Ms. Seraiah Validum, Director of the Division of Health Sciences Education (DHSE) said the
tripartite initiative offers participants a 14-credit online and in-person programme over a 24-
week period.
Validum said the programme consisted of four assignments per course, and used different
teaching methodologies to help the 25 graduands grasp the concepts.
“The participants met in their clusters online once weekly for two hours of virtual classes
conducted by Dr. Prather and Dr. Ortega of the University of Miami School of Nursing and
Allied Health Studies. The programme also encompasses, four cycles of face-to-face visits in
country for a period of no less than three days for the purpose of demonstrations and teaching
practice but due to COVID 19, this was not possible,” Director Validum explained.
The infusion of life into the threatened local nursing education programme commenced in
2014/2015 with 25 tutors completing the programme, Validum said detailing a history of the
tripartite programme. The inaugural programme was fully-funded by PAHO/WHO, and
according to the compact, the remaining two cycles will be financed by the Ministry of Health.
The second cycle of training, Validum said, was completed in 2018 with 20 tutors graduating.
“Before 2014, the nation (had an) extreme shortage of qualified nursing educators. (There was)
an acute crisis, with a reported ratio of only eleven tutors for every 500 students in each of the
Guyana’s three public and one private nursing school,” Validum recalled.
“Responding to the extreme scarcity of prepared nurse tutors and trainers, this gives rise to the
current training undertaken,” the DHSE Director remembered.

Ms. Seraiah Validum, Director of the Division of Health Sciences
Education (DHSE)
Meanwhile, MoH Permanent Secretary (PS), Mr. Malcolm spoke of the need for critical
knowledge to be injected into the sector to maintain its trajectory of good health for the benefit
of its constituents.
“This programme from the University of Miami…will help lift the level of knowledge amongst
our nurses. It is very critical to inject knowledge from overseas…so that we keep abreast with
the cutting-edge technology and know-how in the nursing and other professions as a whole as we
move forward in this difficult age,” Watkins told the graduating ceremony.
We are also grateful for the fact that the advancement in technology and online platforms such as
the blackboard systems which the American schools have been using for a while to enhance their
educational programmes are now becoming more prevalent in Guyana,’ PS Watkins said.