Uganda selected to highlight role of nurses

Professor Francis Omaswa, the executive director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • According to information on the International Council of Nurses Website, the Nursing Now campaign will seek to influence policy and decision makers by demonstrating what nurses can achieve.
  • Additionally, it will “advocate for specific objectives and goals and create a grassroot movement among the global nursing workforce to generate energy, boost morale and encourage recruitment [of more nurses]”.

Kampala. The United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health has selected Uganda and Singapore to highlight the role of nurses in universal health coverage.

The two countries will pilot the Nursing Now campaign, which will start in January 2018 and will run to 2020.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health picked Uganda because the government and the ministry of Health welcomed the campaign.

“…the governments of Uganda, the Ministry of Health were consulted by the UK Parliament and they showed enthusiasm and support for this campaign,” Professor Francis Omaswa, the executive director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, said during an interview in Kampala.

He said the other reason that could have informed the selection of Uganda was the fact that he is one of the two Africans on the governing board of Global Health movement.

The end of the campaign is intended to climax with the bicentennial birthday of Florence Nightingale, who is credited with the recognition of nursing as a profession.

Prof. Omaswa said the selection of Uganda will definitely impact on nursing in the country.
He said there will be a work plan to cover three years that will be developed to strengthen nursing in Uganda.

“So, hopefully, if the project is successful, Ugandan nurses will be more professional than they are now. It is a welcome initiative. We are privileged to have been identified as a pilot country,” he said.

According to information on the International Council of Nurses Website, the Nursing Now campaign will seek to influence policy and decision makers by demonstrating what nurses can achieve.

Additionally, it will “advocate for specific objectives and goals and create a grassroot movement among the global nursing workforce to generate energy, boost morale and encourage recruitment [of more nurses]”.