To Decolonize Global Nursing and Midwifery, Let ’s Rethink How We Train Health Workers

By Stembile Mugore, Senior advisor for health sector performance and sustainability, IntraHealth International Beatrice Aciro, midwife and graduate of Good Samaritan School of Nursing& Midwifery, conducts a practical exercise with students. Photo by Tommy Trenchard for IntraHealth InternationalOctober 15, 2020When I trained as a nurse/midwife in the United Kingdom, I learned about heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. They were part of the curriculum because they were among the most common diseases in the UK.But when I went back home to Zimbabwe—a country that had just declared its independence from a colonial power—to serve my community, I found the needs were different. I needed to know how to diagnose and treat diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV.The curriculum I had used in my training didn’t fully prepare me to serve the needs of my own country and community.Later in my career working in global health, I had the opportunity to review preservice education nursing and midwifery curricula in many countries in east and southern Africa to integrate family planning and HIV services. I was struck by the similarity of most of the curricula content and organization. The preservice education was similar to my own training in Scotland. And there is still a push to make curricula internationally acceptable, meet international standards, and be evidence-based. But high-income countries still recruit nurses and midwives from their former colon...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Midwives Nurses Source Type: news