180 nurses graduate

A total of 180 part one registered nurses for 2021 whom have graduated from the Solomon Islands National University (SINU), Pacific Adventist University (PAU) in Papua New Guinea and PAU Atoifi campus have successfully registered for the one year internship known as the Supervised Practice Program (SPP).

This followed the official opening of the SPP at the St Barnabas Cathedral Hall on Monday this week.

In welcoming the nurses, National Deputy Director of nursing, Mrs. Susan Taragwanu highlighted the importance of the program, which is to ensure nurses are fully registered before being recruited for employment.

In his opening address, the national director of nursing who is also the chair of Solomon Islands Nursing Council Board, Mr. Michael Larui said that the program, which was supposed to start in the 3rd quarter of 2020, was moved to this year.

Mr. Larui explained that SPP is about preparing part one registered nurses for full registration hence challenged the newly registered nurses to be innovative and creative to do things differently for the improvement of nursing care. “I call on you to treat this program seriously because the ministry wants good nurses who will contribute to quality health service delivery to the people of this country”, Mr. Larui said.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Referral Hospital (NRH) Dr George Malefoasi in his key- note address as guest of honor congratulated the nurses and use the opportunity to reiterated the importance of nursing profession.

“Nurses are at the heart of most health teams, playing a crucial role in health promotion, diseases prevention and treatment. This entails a certain level of commitment and dedication as well as behaviors and attitudes that is expected of nurses and will also be assessed during the internship”, highlighted Dr Malefoasi.

He highlighted that there are areas that needs improvement in which the internship program will try to emphasise on which includes timely attendance to work, adhering to nurses ethics and code of conduct and so forth.

With COVID-19, Dr Malefoasi highlighted that roles of nurses goes beyond business as usual. “ Nurses are now involved in COVID-19 related activities such as screenings at ports of entries, swabbing, contact tracing, monitoring and management of COVID-19 positive cases, all of which entail looking beyond the usual work by focusing on more innovative, effective and efficient means of doing things”.

He stated that this is in line with the theme of 2021 International nurses day is Nurses, A Voice to Lead – A vision for future healthcare.

“Let me assure you that the MHMS and NRH stands ready to support you as you go through the program until you are fully registered, “concluded Dr Malefoasi.