The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, St. Luke’s Mission Hospital, Kaloleni and the Ministry of Health celebrated the conclusion of a successful public private partnership formed six years ago to upgrade the skills of community nurses working in remote areas of the Kenya’s coastal region. The partnership, made possible through funds provided by the Canadian-based Lundin for Africa Foundation and was organised specifically to aid nurses who typically attend to more than 100 patients a day in isolated dispensaries with limited medical supplies and insufficient medical knowledge.
Since its establishment, the nursing training programme has upgraded 68 Enrolled Nurses to Registered Nurses. Each nurse will provide nursing care to about 40,000 patients per year collectively reaching out to approximately 2.5 million patients. In addition, over 200 working nurses from various hospitals and health centres within the coastal region received short-term needs-based skills training in reproductive health, leadership and management, and health promotion/health education.
Professor Yasmin Amarsi, Founding Dean of AKU-SONAM said, “We use innovative educational approaches that allow nurses to upgrade their skills and credentials without leaving the workplace. Thanks to the funds received from the Lundin for Africa Foundation and AKU, the nursing students were only required to pay 30 per cent of the fees. The remaining 70 per cent together with meals, accommodation and transport was paid for with funds generated from the partnership.” This gesture was received warmly as the cost of training was out of reach for most of the nurses.
Joy Muballe, a representative of the Lundin Foundation said, “The aim of the Adolf Lundin Family Foundation was to support solutions to developing challenges such as health and education access. This is done through various instruments including grant funding that helps communities such as those in the coastal region benefit from improved service delivery.” She appreciated the success stories from the alumni, particularly, the important contribution they were making in maternal and child health and said that such success was a result of the effective partnership.
The funds also enabled the renovation and furnishing of St Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing including setting up a computer centre for the nurses and a Health Resource Center for Continuing Professional Education. Through the use of modern technology, St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing Kaloleni library was supported by Aga Khan University Faculty of Health Sciences library. This allowed the nurses to access extensive educational materials, books and resources available at the library.
In fact, the AKU-FHS library won the “Maktaba Award” (Library of the Year Award) in 2014 for using technology to enable access to its library services by remote communities such as St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing. During the handing over ceremony, all of these resources were officially given to the administration of St. Luke’s Hospital by the Dean.
Upon completing the programme, each new RN was awarded an Aga Khan University Kenya Registered Community Health Nursing Diploma, and have been re-licensed by the Nursing Council of Kenya. Several graduates are putting their new skills into practice in areas where nurses are usually the sole healthcare providers.
The partnership came to an end having achieved its objectives and graduating the last batch of registered nurses in March 2015 at a ceremony that was presided over by His Highness the Aga Khan, Chancellor, Aga Khan University.
