The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in the UTS Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health (WHO CC UTS) and the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region Office (WHO WPRO), held a three day informal meeting at the end of 2011 to discuss strategies on improving nursing and midwifery education in lesser resourced countries of the Asia Pacific.
In the meeting, regional nursing educators and health leaders from Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, China, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Samoa, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea joined experts from Sigma Theta Tau International, WHO and other academic institutions at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) to discuss key areas that impact nursing and midwifery education.
The meeting was made possible through financial support of the WHO Western Pacific Region, the University of Sydney Technology, AusAID and other institutional support. The consultation aimed to identify ways to strengthen nursing and midwifery educational capacities in the Asia Pacific region, share information on the progress of current work and plan strategic actions for education improvements and needs in 2012.
"We've all come together to discuss each working group's research findings on improving nursing and midwifery service delivery and educational outcomes," said Professor John Daly, Head of the WHO CC UTS and Faculty Dean.
"This work will be done through the application and evaluation of academic quality standards and guidelines; educational outcome or practice competencies and faculty capacity-building interventions."
The meetings main objectives were to i) report on regional findings, identify key trends and influencing factors on the future of nursing and midwifery education and practice; ii) review and evaluate progress to date in the three core areas of work; iii) identify gaps, advocacy and collaborative needs across all areas and; iv) formulate and present action plans for continued work in 2012.
“This collaborative project established three global working groups because basic population and health needs remain unmet in a large number of lesser-resourced countries and this has had a significant impact on progression towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,” said Michele Rumsey, Director of Operations and Development at WHO CC UTS.
Ms Rumsey said the informal consultation addressed all the objectives. Day one focused on the regional findings, key trends and the influencing factors on current and future nursing and midwifery education and day two incorporated group discussions and developed action plans based on the needs identified by each group over the next twelve months.
The three global working groups are due to meet early in 2012 to review their actions and progress.
