Dubai, 18 June 2011 (WAM) - The UAE Nursing & Midwifery Council held its second board meeting for the year 2011 on June 01, 2011. Chairing the meeting was Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali, UAE Minister of Health.
The enlightened guidance and support of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein as the President of the UAE Nursing and Midwifery Council was applauded by Dr. Hanif Hassan. He, furthermore, acknowledged the contributions of health authorities across the UAE and other supportive entities in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to the undertakings of the UAE NMC in accordance with its 5-year strategic plan. In all the council endeavors, Dr. Hanif stressed upon making Emiratization as the foundation since the national workforce in this very vital field is still scarce. The agenda for this meeting focused on establishing a national strategy for nursing and midwifery education. The strategy included seven goals which emphasized the recruitment of Emirati women and men into the profession to establish a strong presence of Emirati nurses and midwives to lead the profession into the future. The strategy also establishes the bachelor degree as the minimum entry level into the profession in alignment with the international standards and the World Health Organization recommendations and emphasizes the need for specialty education and for graduate level programs at the masters and doctorate levels. The education goals will form the foundation for a strategic plan that will be used by a collaborative team representing the universities, hospitals and health authorities, the ministries of health and higher education, and other related stakeholders. It is the intention of the Council to promote the advancement of nursing and midwifery education in the UAE to prepare a group of highly qualified leaders educated in the UAE to serve in faculty and research positions, clinical leadership roles and management and executive positions.Other topics within the agenda included updates on the progress of the three scientific committees which are embarking on unifying standards for education, practice, and registration and licensure. The scope of practice for registered nurses, discussed and approved by the council board during the first meeting for the year 2011, was posted for public commentary for four months; comments were reviewed and incorporated into the document.
The Council board also heard a report about the data collection progress for the Nursing and Hospital Quality Study undertaken by the Council with funding support by the Ministry of Health and the Emirates Foundation. Also presented to the Council was the new UAE NMC website that will be available by October 2011, the Nursing and Midwifery Specialization Framework and the Nursing Emiratization planning components. The UAE NMC Council also heard about plans to establish the UAE NMC Research Center that will embark on research skill capacity building, offer grants to eligible research proposals, and undertake research that will develop the nursing and midwifery profession and improve the quality of nursing and midwifery care delivered to the public. The council will convene its third meeting for the year 2011 in October 2011.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2011.
