This month’s issue celebrates all nurses living and working in East, Central and Southern Africa.We are pleased to announce that in the month of March 2022, the Vaka Health Foundation signed a multiyear collaboration with ECSACON to modernize and advance nursing education in Africa. Vaka is a social enterprise based in Australia and has a memorandum of understanding with La Trobe University to advance nursing education in Africa. The partnership has now established the Guild Learning Center.
Introducing the Guild Learning Center
The Guild Learning Center, a digital learning platform providing low cost micro-credentialling, free CPD and long-term fellowship training went live on 1 May 2022. Coinciding with the International Nurses Day Commemorations in May the center comes as part of ECASCON’s Nursing Education Modernization Initiative which will see the College fully implementing its training mandate. ECSACON’s strategic partnership with the Vaka Health Foundation who are experts in Learning Management systems and content development has positioned the College to provide training in all 16 Member States. Micro-Credentialing courses (The Membership pathway) are now available as well as CPD. Four fellowships (Critical Care Nursing, Chronic Disease Management, Midwifery and Neonatal Nursing will launch in January 2023). The fellowship program is aimed at mitigating the skills shortage currently in the ECSA region by producing advance practice specialized nurses in the various areas of nursing. The Guild Learning Center lives at https://nursesguild.africa and is also accessible on mobile applications via the Moodle app on playstore.
All courses are accredited and certified by ECSACON.
Note from the Vaka Director : Mr Yangama Jokwiro
“Getting an opportunity to give back through training and exchange is a milestone achievement for us at Vaka. I trained as a nurse in Zimbabwe before migrating to Australia where I have been serving in Nursing Education but I have never forgotten home where my skills where initially honed.It has always been my wish that we would get an opportunity to bridge the divide between developed and developing nations in nursing education and services. The Guild has given us that opportunity to give back and along with my colleagues at Vaka we are committed to impact right where it matters most – Primary Care.”
Note from the ECSACON President : Ms Keoagetse Kgwabi
“ECSACON’s journey for the last 30 years has been a story of resilience and strong advocacy. The world has been changing and when I came into office along with my Executive Committee, we determined that we would transform college to be able to meet the needs of nursing through training. The launch of the Guild Learning center on partnership with Vaka is a major step in us achieving that goal. We call upon partners to come forward to assist students from various countries to access this important resource.We want to see Action and Action Now!!”
This Month’s Featured Course: Nursing Informatics
This month’s featured course in The Nursing Informatics Fundamentals Course. The purpose of this course is to provide students with the basic foundational principles in health informatics exposing them to tools, methodologies and health information systems. This course takes a simplistic approach to an emerging concept on which health information is going to be centered on going forward world wide.
What you will learn:
• Digital Health
• Telemedicine, Electronic health records
• Health Informatics Standards
• Data Management(Databases)
News
1. We announced the release of 100 scholarships for nurses living and working in the ECSA region to complete the Micro credentialing membership course. Deadline for applications is 16 June 2022 and is fast approaching. For more information on this visit the Guild Learning Center or click this link https://bit.ly/guildscholarship
2. We conducted our first webinar on 28 May in which we interacted with various nurses on the opportunities in Nursing presented by the Guild such as courses and scholarships. A recording is available for viewing on the Guild on this link https://bit.ly/escasconMay . The June Webinar will be held on 25 June 2022
3. We also announced our Ambassador program for nurses who are interested in advancing the goals and ideals of the Guild learning center to their peers. For more information on this program contact secretary@nursesguild.africa