The five East African Community countries have taken one more step towards harmonising nursing education and practice across the region through the setting-up of two taskforces, in Education and Training and in Governance and Structure. These taskforces are to craft harmonized education standards and a standardized licensing system that will allow the free movement of nursing students and professionals across the partner states.
The Seventh East African Regional Nursing and Midwives Harmonisation
meeting in Nairobi, attended by academics and policymakers from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, heard Professor Sharon Brownie, Dean of AKU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery in East Africa present a summary of the harmonization project, the decisions endorsed by Ministers and recommended work priorities going forward. The proposals were based on the outcomes of multiple national consultative meetings in each East African country as well as several regional meetings that are working on integration of the health sector.
The Education and Training taskforce will oversee the development of a new dual qualification in nursing and midwifery to replace existing standalone degrees; update and establish uniform curriculum guidelines and standards at both diploma and degree level based on the knowledge and core competencies required of nurses and midwives; establish standards for accreditation and recognition of nursing educational programmes across the EAC.
Meanwhile, the Governance and Structure taskforce will focus on strengthening regulatory frameworks and enforcement including joint inspections, and the mutual recognition and accreditation of nursing and midwifery training schools and health care facilities and institutions.
Following her presentation, Professor Brownie said: “AKU has worked with nursing leaders and decision makers to understand how to introduce global standards and benchmarks into the curriculum in the EAC states. Collectively we will take into account guidelines issued by the World Health Organization, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the European Union. In parallel there is a need to develop educational qualifications for nursing and midwifery faculty and in this area we can draw from and contextualize the US-based National League for Nursing’s Competencies for Nurse Educators.
“Nurses and midwives are key to providing attentive and timely health care. Our goal is to raise the HRH capacity of nurses and midwives by developing standards in education and governance for the profession throughout the region. This will greatly increase the flexibility of workforce utilization while also enhancing educational standards and offerings ultimately raising East Africa’s health indicators and meeting the Sustainable Development Goal benchmarks,” she added.
The conference formally marks the implementation of harmonisation efforts, which began in 2014 when the AKU led a research study on behalf of the EAC secretariat - supported by German development bank KFW - to develop regionally harmonized training, practice and regulations for the professions of nursing and midwifery.