26th September, 2007
AMREF, the Nursing Council of Kenya and Accenture’s eLearning project in Kenya has won an ABSA Health Care Award in South Africa.
The project won the non-governmental organisation category of this important pan-African award, which recognises and rewards innovation, excellence and sustainability.
The announcement was made at a gala dinner and awards ceremony held last week in Sandton, South Africa.
Blanche Pitt, country director for AMREF in South Africa said: “I felt very honoured to receive the ABSA Healthcare Award on behalf of AMREF. It was an exhilarating experience. The other finalists from the NGO sector included organisations who are considered the best in Africa.¨
The winning entry is an innovative public-private partnership that is working to upgrade the skills of 20,000 nurses in Kenya.
According to Dr. Peter Ngatia, Director of Learning Systems for AMREF, “This programme is not only going to drastically improve the health care of Kenya, it is also going to be emulated by other countries – and the impact on Africa’s health system will be enormous.”
More than 85% of Kenya’s 20,000 nurses are trained at certificate level and do not have registered nurses' diploma, leaving them inadequately qualified to treat major diseases, such as HIV, TB and malaria. Classroom-based training for the registered nurses’ diploma is limited, meaning only 100 of the 20,000 nurses qualify each year. This has left Kenya with just one registered nurse per 27,000 people.
To speed the process, AMREF has shifted the emphasis from traditional and paper-based distance learning to eLearning. In partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Health, the Nursing Council of Kenya (NCK), the Kenya Medical Training Colleges and Accenture (a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company), AMREF is using eLearning to register 20,000 Kenyan nurses by 2011.
The project has developed four training modules to be delivered through more than 100 eLearning centres – reaching nurses in the remotest areas of Kenya.
Unlike traditional training, the eLearning programme is flexible, enabling students to learn anytime and anywhere, and without the need to stop working while they upgrade their skills.
AMREF staff and local partners are fully trained to run and further expand the project themselves. AMREF will use the programme as a model for other African countries struggling with critical nursing shortages.
The Registrar of the Nursing Council of Kenya states, “We are proud of the eLearning programme as nurse managers are reporting an improvement in the quality of nursing care. With improved nursing care, we are confident of our contribution in steering our country towards meeting the health related millennium development goals.”
So far computers, software and printers have been installed in 101 hospital and school-based training centres. In the wake of a successful pilot project, more than 140 nurses enrolled for the first diploma course in Sep 2005. This number has grown to over 2,000 students to date.