AMREF’s E-Nurses Shine Again
Nairobi, Kenya October 26, 2009 - AMREF is pleased to announce 100% of the 2009 class graduated from AMREF’s groundbreaking virtual nursing school.
“The school is documenting the implementation process, the successes, the challenges and the lessons learned. We will share them with our partners and stakeholders and recommend best practices in Registered Nurses’ training” says to Dr Peter Ngatia, AMREF’s Director of Capacity Building.
In 2001, the Nursing Council of Kenya approached AMREF to develop a solution on how to upgrade the skills of 22,000 enrolled nurses to registered level. The majority of Kenya's nurses are trained at the lowest ‘enrolled’ status. Yet with less than 10 per cent of Kenya’s health workers being doctors, nurses are the backbone of the health system.
Kenya, like most developing countries has limited training facilities; only 100 nurses can be upgraded each year using traditional classroom methods, so the Council and AMREF decided on distance learning which with the support of Accenture, a global management consulting and technology service company, to evolved into the globally acclaimed eLearning programme.
But eLearning as a new discipline has posed many challenges to the implementers, partners and students, hence the AMREF’s Virtual Nursing School was established to research into and test innovative eLearning methods for nursing education in Kenya.
“The students and faculty are participating in generating knowledge about eLearning in the context of a resource-constrained country like Kenya, where connectivity, human resources and skills are still a challenge.”
About the eLearning Programme
In 2005, AMREF and the Nursing Council of Kenya partnered with Accenture, a global management consulting and technology service company, to convert the printed course materials into electronic versions.
So far computers, eLearning courseware and printers have been installed in 105 hospitals and school-based training centers across the country.
In the wake of a successful pilot project, 135 nurses enrolled for the first diploma course in September 2005. This number has grown to close to 6,000 students to date. Following the Programme’s success in Kenya, it will be replicated in Uganda in 2010.
For further information please contact:
Bob Kioko, AMREF Corporate Communications Manager,
+254 20 6993111 or Cell: +254 735 546440
bob.kioko@amref.org
Salima Pirani AMREF Canada
(416) 961-6981
spirani@amrefcanada.org
