Professional nurses play an integral role in health care, health care promotion and disease prevention in developing countries and a shortage of educated nurses can lead to serious problems in health care systems.
Nursing and midwifery are integral components of health care and the contributions of nurses in health care systems in Africa cannot be underestimated.
A project with the aim of strengthening nursing and midwifery in Africa through education was launched by the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA), a technical body of the African Union (AU). "The focus of the programme is to strengthen nursing in Africa by training nurses in countries up to Master's degree level," says Prof Anita van der Merwe, the Head of the Division of Nursing Science at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
She explains that the reason for this is three fold:
• To empower nurses to play a leadership role and thereby strengthen health care
• To work with the student's countries to promote their own nursing education to postgraduate level
• To support the quality of service delivery, hopefully to PhD level.
The project, called the NEPAD Project on Nursing and Midwifery Education in Africa, is essentially about collaborative human resources and capacity building in health care.
It is focused on the implementation of a Master's degree in Nursing and Midwifery to improve the level of competence in specific areas of nursing and health care to the betterment of care, especially in rural and socio-economically disadvantaged communities.
The programmes will be implemented in the Republic of Cameroon by the Stellenbosch University (SU), the Gabonese Republic by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and in Congo-Brazzaville which will be working with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
The project is led by the UKZN as coordinating institution, by the SU as implementing institution and by Yaounde1 University (UY1) in Cameroon as Host Institution. "It is funded by NEPAD, but the participating countries make a huge financial contribution," says Van der Merwe.
Representatives from SU participated in a fact finding mission to the Republic of Cameroon in 2013. "We considered the project to be aligned with the vision and mission of SU – being 'in Africa for Africa'," says Van der Merwe.
Delegates from the Cameroon visited SU in 2015. The Cameroon Departments of Health, Foreign Affairs and Higher Education, together with UY1, are all involved with the project.
It is expected that, upon finalisation of the Memoranda of Understanding between UKZN and SU and SU and UY1, about 20 candidates will register with SU for the Master's programme for Nurses and/or Midwives.
Prospective students will first register for the one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing Leadership and Management at SU, to prepare them for the requirements of Master's degree studies in South Africa. "We will also offer the same diploma to candidates from Gabon as per request from UWC to enable the Gabonese candidates to eventually register for a Master's programme at UWC," says Van der Merwe.
SU will provide the necessary educational material and support, inclusive of module material, on-site workshops, telematic broadcasting, supervision and modes of assessment enactment.
"The current project involves Francophone countries and we are reaching out to them by having the course material translated into French," says Van der Merwe. "We will further endeavour to support the development of human capacity in the host university for them to eventually continue offering the Master's programme locally, as well as a collaborative relationship in terms of teaching and research."
This is the second outreach programme of its kind by NEPAD. The first programme was implemented in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by a consortium of Southern African universities, namely the universities of the Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Witwatersrand and Botswana. Van der Merwe was part of the outreach between the University of the Free State and the DRC.
Photo: Representatives from Cameroon during their recent visit to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, with their SU counterparts. Seated in front are Ms Kom Assumpta Ekie (épse Kechia), Prof Mzobz Mboya, Ms Julienne Nsoga and Prof Anita van der Merwe. At the back are Prof Keymanthri Moodley, Dr Ronel Retief, Prof Pieter Hesseling, Ms Estelle Coustas, Ms Florence Africa, Mr Ibrahim Gourouza, Prof Charles Wiysonge and Prof Usuf Chikte.
