Ms Julie Kirk1
1Princess Margaret Hospital, Funafuti, Tuvalu
The purpose is to highlight the resilience of nurses within a remote island nation who have minimal resources including training opportunities, workforce development, career pathway, essential equipment, policy and nursing and midwifery governance.
Introduction
Developing a nursing workforce in Tuvalu in order to deliver recognised international nursing standards to a population with minimal nursing and midwifery resource capacity.
What is happening
Tuvalu is a small pacific nation situated between Hawaii and Fiji. Population is approximately 11,000 spread over 9 atolls. Princess Margaret Hospital is situated on Funafuti the largest of the nine island atolls. Tuvalu has no school of nursing, no legislative registration body, the current qualified nursing workforce have been trained outside of Tuvalu in other pacific nations with a heavy reliance on unskilled assistant nurses/ nurse aides to provide nursing care at all levels.
Conclusion
This paper will summarise my experience in relation to growing and developing a future skilled nursing workforce in Tuvalu through the importance of building trusted and sustainable partnerships across the Pacific and highlighting the first in country nursing course that was delivered through virtual and online modes. The leading a successful learning and development model proved invaluable in increasing qualification, knowledge and skill using virtual and online learning systems.
Biography:
A registered nurse with over 30 years experience in a number of health care settings including rural and remote and overseas roles. Hold post graduate qualifications in management and health law. Have been employed as a Nurse Mentor Adviser to the Chief Nursing Officer and department of nursing in Tuvalu.