Gambian delegation understudies Nursing, Midwifery Council

In a bid to restructure and improve nursing and midwifery practice in The Gambia, a two-member delegation from the country has visited the Nursing and Midwifery Council (N&MC) to understudy their activities.

Led by Mr Mafugi Bojang, Registrar of the Gambia Nursing and Midwifery Council together with his Deputy, Alasana Darboe, the visit afforded the delegation the opportunity to understudy the N&MC’s licensing examination structure particularly its online examination.

They also took interest in other ongoing reforms by the N&MC including its indexing, registration, accreditation and success stories.

The delegation also visited the school of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Ghana, Legon and the Nursing and Midwifery Training School in Koforidua to acquaint themselves with the various courses being taught in the training institutions.

In his remark, Mr Bojang lauded Ghana’s achievement as the first on the African continent to introduce an online examination in the training of individuals into the nursing and midwifery profession.

According to him, they chose to understudy Ghana due to its credibility and integrity in building a robust regulatory system for the training, education and practice of nursing and midwifery.

Highly impressed about the delivery by the Council, Mr Bojang sought the assistance of the Council to assist his outfit in their quest to restructure and transform their nursing and midwifery regulatory system.

“We are ever ready to understudy and implement the transformational models and initiatives you have introduced here,” he said.

Receiving the delegation on behalf of the Governing Board, Mrs Philomina Woolley, Deputy Registrar in charge of Operations at the N&MC with the assistance of some senior officers, took the delegation through series of presentations and discussions on the Council’s mandate, change management processes of the online licensing examination, digitisation of the indexing process, renewal of license to practise and the general operations of the Council.

Mrs Woolley disclosed that with the implementation of the online licensing examination which commenced in September 2018, 374 Registered Mental Health Nurses from three training institutions have so far sat for the online licensing examination.

She added that “currently close to 8,000 nursing and midwifery candidates have taken licensing examination in Registered Mental Health Nursing, Registered Community Nursing, Registered Midwifery, Post NAC/NAP Midwifery, Peri-Operative Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Critical Care Nursing, Public Health Nursing and Ear, Nose and Throat Nursing”

The Deputy Registrar said it is the expectation of the N&MC that in the year 2020, the Registered General Nursing and Registered Nurse Assistants (Clinical/Preventive) programmes would be rolled out to make the entire conduct of the licensing examination by the Council fully digitised.

Explaining the success of the implementation of the online licensing examination, Mrs. Woolley explained that prior to its implementation; the Council took time to engage the various training institutions in an intensive education on the mode of operation of the online exams, and further conducted mock exercises to prepare candidates psychologically.

“The Council received support for the development and implementation of the online licensing examination project from the Netherlands Embassy through its Capacity Development in Higher Education programme initiative (NICHE) and The Netherland Universities Foundation for International Cooperation (NUFFIC),” she said.

She told the team that the Council is implementing the project in partnership with a consortium comprising CINOP Global and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Mrs Woolley assured the delegation that the N&MC was prepared for cooperation, collaboration and that it will assist in the restructuring and transformation of the nursing and midwifery regulatory system and operations in The Gambia.

BY TIMES REPORTER