CONTINUING Medical Education (CME) is being advanced because it is considered key to the improvement of health workers in light of global changes, according to Mr. Noel Holder, Director of Health Sciences Education. He said: ”Once global changes are taking place in health, we, here, need to be a part of them.”
Holder added that improving the training levels of health care professionals would also serve as testimony to the investment and emphasis that Government is directing towards the sector.
He said, with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), if health workers were to leave, they would boast of the same in other territories.
Holder explained that a number of measures are being taken to ensure that CME is bolstered.
“Regional Health Services and the Division of Health Sciences have developed a course outline that looked at a number of areas of CME across the 10 Regions of Guyana,” he said.
Holder pointed out that, apart from doctors, nurses are now being encouraged to pursue CME.
“The Nursing Council has a separate committee that speaks to continuing nursing education which the Division supports,” he said.
Holder said, in 2008, the Division began addressing that issue and it is striving towards making it compulsory for re-registration of nurses.
He said the Division adopted a package used in the Caribbean and has been utilisng it.
Holder said, for health workers in hinterland regions, the Division will be sending hard copies of the educational material and, where possible, electronic versions, as well, to boost training in those areas.
“We are thinking of utilising some of the persons on the Nursing Council who would have participated in the training we did in Georgetown to oversee some of that work in the hinterland,” he indicated.