Tue, 30 Mar 2010
Cameroon health representatives are address their country's health training structures with expert advice from the School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Government and health representatives from Cameroon have spent the week at the Faculty of Health as part of an ongoing collaboration to improve health training in the west African republic. The collaboration is funded by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and managed by the British Council.
Dr Gibson D'Cruz and Kate Allen, both lecturers in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, have been working with health authorities in south-west Cameroon to develop training for 'Home and Community Care Workers', a pre-registration curriculum for four educational institutions, and a curriculum for experienced nurses.
Mr James Forestia, the Minster of Vocational Training’s delegate for South West Cameroon, explained, “One of our on-going challenges is to embed a robust training structure to support health provision – and this is why we are working closely with the UEA because it has the expertise to help guide our programmes. We will validate the three strands of work through our Higher Institute of Applied Medical Sciences and the University of Buea, Cameroon. We hope that that the training structure will not only see an improvement in front-line delivery, but it will encourage more people into health services – and that’s really important because our population is very dispersed with many health challenges.”
Cameroon has a population of over 15,000,000, comprised of over 200 tribal groups. A large proportion of the population (47%) lives in non-urban areas. United Nations figures point to a life expectancy of 50 years for men and 52 for women.
Kate Allen, “The fact that this is the second collaboration that we’ve entered with health colleagues in Cameroon is evidence that our work is making a difference in the delivery of training. Properly structured training is the key to accelerating and maintaining improvements in front line delivery – and that’s the same in every country. We’re looking forward to making even more progress as we help roll-out these programmes over the coming months.”
The next stage of the collaboration is for the UEA team to visit Cameroon in April to provide further help with curriculum development and teaching. The collaboration has forged really strong links between UEA and Cameroon, resulting in an offer for nursing students to spend their elective in the country.
Dr Gibson D'Cruz and Kate Allen, both lecturers in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, have been working with health authorities in south-west Cameroon to develop training for 'Home and Community Care Workers', a pre-registration curriculum for four educational institutions, and a curriculum for experienced nurses.
Mr James Forestia, the Minster of Vocational Training’s delegate for South West Cameroon, explained, “One of our on-going challenges is to embed a robust training structure to support health provision – and this is why we are working closely with the UEA because it has the expertise to help guide our programmes. We will validate the three strands of work through our Higher Institute of Applied Medical Sciences and the University of Buea, Cameroon. We hope that that the training structure will not only see an improvement in front-line delivery, but it will encourage more people into health services – and that’s really important because our population is very dispersed with many health challenges.”
Cameroon has a population of over 15,000,000, comprised of over 200 tribal groups. A large proportion of the population (47%) lives in non-urban areas. United Nations figures point to a life expectancy of 50 years for men and 52 for women.
Kate Allen, “The fact that this is the second collaboration that we’ve entered with health colleagues in Cameroon is evidence that our work is making a difference in the delivery of training. Properly structured training is the key to accelerating and maintaining improvements in front line delivery – and that’s the same in every country. We’re looking forward to making even more progress as we help roll-out these programmes over the coming months.”
The next stage of the collaboration is for the UEA team to visit Cameroon in April to provide further help with curriculum development and teaching. The collaboration has forged really strong links between UEA and Cameroon, resulting in an offer for nursing students to spend their elective in the country.
