MINISTER of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, delivered remarks at a Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) session hosted by the Nurses and Midwives Council, Guyana, at the Ministry’s Conference Room in Brickdam on Wednesday.
The session aimed to enhance the clinical and educational skills of nurses and midwives to improve healthcare practices, education, administration, research, and theory development, ultimately providing healthcare that meets community needs.
The CNE session, available both in person and virtually, began yesterday and will conclude today. Discussions focused primarily on contraceptives and patient safety. Participants will earn four credit hours, contributing to their annual training requirements for re-registration.
Minister Anthony highlighted the importance of CNE sessions in keeping nurses and midwives updated with the latest medical information.
“Medicine is a very dynamic area, and daily there are concepts that are being changed, new information that is being made available, discoveries, and unless we have sessions where we are keeping ourselves informed very quickly, we’ll be outdated. So the CNE sessions are geared to do that,” he explained.
Dr. Anthony commended the nursing council for organising the CNE session and suggested that future sessions should be scheduled at different times or on different days to accommodate more participants. He noted that most people are at work during the day, making it difficult for them to attend.
The Health Minister also emphasised the use of CNE sessions to disseminate updated information on health sector developments. “There are many topics that we want to convey to you. Some of them might be in the clinical team, but I think there are other topics that we need to address because I’m not sure that many of you are acquainted with all the things that we are doing in the health sector. Sometimes these sessions can be used as a way of getting information across to people about what we’re doing in the health sector,” he stated.
Minister Anthony noted that future topics could include efforts towards the elimination of Filaria, Hepatitis C, and Diabetes.
The session was attended by Mr. Sharir Chan from the Guyana Cancer Society and a Member of the Nurses and Midwives Council Guyana, along with Dr. Fareez Khan, Head of the West Demerara Regional Hospital Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OB/GYN) Department.
