Astra-Zeneca supports South Africa's nurse educators

The celebration of International World Nurses Day in May held little to celebrate if the wide spread reporting of they day is to be believed. Increasing shortages of nurses in South Africa, the difficult conditions in which they work, the fact that they are overburdened, go unacknowledged and are plagued by discontent and low morale was splashed across the media. Even Thandi Manganye, acting registrar of the South African Nursing Council, confirmed that existing nursing qualifications are not aligned to South African Qualification Authority requirements (SAQA).

Recognising the enormous burden on the country's nursing staff and the need to keep nurses from leaving the profession, AstraZeneca in partnership with Netcare and the Gauteng Department of Health (DOH), has sponsored 10 nursing educators to participate in and complete a one-year in-service Clinical Facilitation Development Programme, an investment close to R125 000.

The 14 module programme is first-to-market and first-to-industry in this country. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it integrates technical “health care education” competencies with interpersonal and team competencies. The training has been developed with registered nurses, nursing educators and anyone involved in clinical accompaniment of nursing staff and learners in mind.

The AstraZeneca sponsorship of the nursing educators / clinical facilitator's development programme is initially only a Gauteng initiative, but according to AstraZeneca CEO, Dr Guni Goolab, the company may well support the initiative at hospitals nationwide in 2009. He adds that the sponsorship of the programme is 100% in line with the company's transformation objectives in the context of skills development. “We hope this training will in a small way begin to address the inadequate supply of graduates from nursing colleges and assist in retaining nurses in the public and private sector,” says Goolab.

The educators who will complete the training in May 2009 when they receive a certificate of competence from Netcare Education are already qualified professional nurses currently teaching at various nursing colleges. All were identified and hand picked by the Gauteng DOH to complete the education programme.
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The programme is fully customized to a health care education environment. Clear and discrete goals in terms of what skills and competencies the educators need to develop on the programme are drawn up ensuring the training's relevance. This coupled with individual coaching with a nominated programme facilitator further strengthens the course.

Netcare Education's National Manager Shannon Nell says that the learning approach used is experiential and encourages learners to bring problems or issues they are facing within their work context to class for discussion with peers and facilitators.

“Assignments involving both syndicate and individual work augment the experiential approach and learners are required to implement a project within their workplace, synthesising the modular content covered during the programme. The summative assessments culminate in a presentation on the projects implemented, along with the submission of an individual assignment,” says Nell.

Over and above the Netcare sponsorship, AstraZeneca supports nursing staff through education and in-service training on infection control and the application of its products in this setting, as well as critical care congress sponsorships. The pharmaceutical company also supplies hand washing charts and hand wash gels to hospitals nationwide in an attempt to control the spread of drug resistant bacteria.

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with a broad range of products in seven therapeutic areas, including gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology, pain and anaesthesia and infection.

For further information visit www.astrazeneca.co.za