Category: News

Oshar Bakhit, a 31 year old Sudanese national in Israel on a tourist visa, charged with stabbing  65-year-old Nurse Rachel Kovo in the stomach, seriously injuring her

A man was indicted Friday for stabbing a nurse in Shmuel Harofe Geriatric Medical Center in the central Israel town of Beer Yaakov, where he had previously been treated.

According to the indictment, 31-year-old Oshar Bakhit, a Sudanese national, entered the hospital on July 2, carrying a knife with a 19-centimeter blade hidden in his pants. Bakhit, who had been a patient in the hospital from January to May, planned to attack one of the staff due to his anger that the hospital would not readmit him.

Ignoring the guard’s call for him to stop, Bakhit allegedly made his way to the nurse’s station. When the guard confronted him, Bakhit drew his knife and threatened him, and the guard fled

Bakhit then allegedly stabbed a nurse, 65-year-old Rachel Kovo, plunging the knife deep into her abdomen. According to the indictment, the nurse grabbed Bakhit’s hand and held on to him to prevent him from stabbing her again.

The guard returned with his pistol drawn and forced Bakhit to drop the knife. He was then overpowered by staff.

Kovo was seriously wounded in the stabbing. She required two operations, was sedated for some two weeks and remains in intensive care.

Bakhit, who is in Israel on a tourist visa, was charged with serious intent to cause injury and with threatening others.

The Health Ministry strongly condemned the attack and ordered security increased at health institutions.

Esti Ayalon Kovo, the daughter of the nurse injured in the attack, spoke then about the need for action.

“Cases such as this should not happen again, and decision-makers must understand that they have an equally important role — to create a culture with zero tolerance for violence. Something has to change,” said Ayalon Kovo.

“She was attacked by a patient who wanted to be hospitalized again. He did not single her out — he hurt her because he was frustrated, because he was angry. I cannot understand it,” she added.

According to a December 2017 report issued by the Health Ministry committee examining the issue, there are more than 3,000 incidents of violence against medical personnel per year, with only 11 percent of them reported to police. Only a small portion of that percentage are ever brought to trial.

In March last year, 78-year-old Asher Faraj doused nurse Tova Kararo at his local HMO clinic in the city of Holon with flammable liquid and set it alight, killing her.
Source: Times of Israel

-Korle-Bu graduates first set of Degree in Preoperative and Critical Care Nursing

Ghana requires not less than 4,000 Critical Care and 3,000 Peri-Operative Nurses (PON) to meet the country’s holistic medical care demand, Dr Kwaku Asante-Krobea, Principal of the School of Peri-Operative and Critical Nursing, Korle-Bu has said.

Dr Asante-Korbea said the global health coverage and other health goals would not be achieved unless Nurses and midwives who make up to 75 per cent of the health sector professionals’ workforce globally were supported and empowered.

‘Nurses and Midwives are often undervalued and we believe we could make a bigger contribution if we are enabled to work to the limit of our competence having acquired specialised education.’

Dr Asante Krobea was speaking at the first graduation ceremony of 50 Peri-Operative and 47 Critical Nurses respectively at Korle-Bu in Accra on Thursday. They were awarded with Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.

Under Peri-Operative Nursing (PON), four students obtained first class, 42 obtained Second Class Upper and four obtained Second Class Lower. Mr Mallet Kojo Gbogblorvor was adjudged the overall best in PON.

Five students also obtained first class in Critical Care Nursing (CCN) while 38 obtained Second Class Upper and four had second class lower. Cecilia Asiama Yeboah was adjudged the overall best student in CCN.

The University of Cape Coast, awarded them with the Degrees certificates.

PON and CCN are specialised nurses who provide quality service and care delivery in operating theatres and intensive units of medical facilities.

Touching on the theme ‘Confronting the challenge of healthcare with Nursing Specialisation: projecting Peri-Operative and Critical Care, ‘ Dr Asante-Krobea said the country could not continue to rely on the skills of more basic skills as against insignificant few specialised skills to achieve appreciable Universal Health Coverage.

He said literature had suggested that clients seeking health care everywhere were safer in the hands of ‘well educated nurses.’

‘If we can apply our skills of actively listening to individuals, getting a sense of their individual needs, constraints and desires, higher education becomes a sine-qua-non.

‘ We need to work on many fronts, and it is only a focus-driven academic preparation that will meet the emerging trend.’

According to him patients’ needs kept changing over time and nurses needed to embrace a strong health promotion approach.

He said currently the World Health Organisation, global health agenda endorsed the rights and privileges’ of all individuals to receive health care information pricelessly if possible.

That agenda, he said imposed a great responsibility on persons who possesses the skill and knowledge to deliver health care information to persons requiring it.

‘Considering the fact that health care information is a right and a privilege, I dare challenge professionals in health care to rise up against the challenge by seeking continuous education.’

Dr Asante Krobea recounted that it was responsibility of government to strengthen and invest in nursing and midwifery for health institutions to have a triple impact of promoting health, advance gender equality and strengthen local economies.

‘The long term goal is to raise the profile of Nursing and Midwifery globally, makes it central to health policy and decision making to ensure that Nurses and Midwives can use their skills, education and training to their full capacity. ‘

Such a positive action from government will engender public confidence in the slowly dying health system,’ Dr Asante-Krobea said.

He therefore appealed to the Ministry of Health to expand the school’s existing infrastructural edifice in order to procure more class rooms, laboratories, electronic libraries staff offices and accommodation.

Dr Asante-Krobea said school was ready to partner with relevant stakeholders to enable staff of the school to build the needed capacity through enrolment in Doctoral Programmes.

‘We still uphold the tenacity to collaborate with some countries in Africa to train their practicing Nurses to acquire specialisation in PON and CCN. This academic year, again, foreign students would be enrolled.”

He announced that school was currently in partnership with the National Blood Service to produce degree-prepared nurses who would work in various capacities within the Service where specialists would be required.

Dr Asante- Krobea was elated that for the past 20 years, the school had produced 1,000 Peri-Operative and Critical Care Specialists in the country.

He congratulated the students bracing the storm through dint of hard work in order to achieve high academic laurels.

Madam Tina Mensah, Deputy Minister of Health in a speech read on her behalf noted that pursuing a specialisation was not only beneficial for career advancement but also for shaping the future of health care system.

The Minister said task of ensuring universal health coverage as enshrined in the SDG’s, required the contribution of specialised nursing.

‘My plea to our graduands is that their impact should be felt by patients. Let clients project you by the testimony they give as a result of the unique services they receive.’

According to her, that would require good interpersonal relationship and good communication and feedback with patients at every point of the health delivery chain.

The Minister further tasked the graduands to practice within the confines of the law and maintain high professional standards at all times.

GNA
By Joyce Danso/Gifty Amofa, GNA

Mr Joel M. Kpodo, Chairman of the Society for Nurses in Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery- Ghana (SNEMIS), has called for the formalisation of the specialised training for nurses in the fields of gastroenterology, endoscopy (Nurse Endoscopists), and minimally invasive surgery.

He said a formal training for nurses would enable them acquire the requisite knowledge, skills, academic and professional qualifications matching international standards.

Mr Kpodo made the call at a three-day third national endoscopy and minimally invasive surgical nursing workshop, ECG reading and basic life support training for nurses and endoscopy staff, held on Friday, in Accra.

The training workshop, on the theme, “Demystifying endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery for safety and efficiency,” entails both didactics and hands-on sessions, which would cover vital areas of the practice, including the roles and responsibilities of the endoscopy nurse, advances in endoscope reprocessing protocols, patient’s pathway in endoscopy, client’s safety in endoscopy, ECG reading and interpretation, and basic life support.

He said endoscopy nursing roles had advanced over the last few years, and today endoscopy nurses were upgrading their skills and qualifications to become nurse endoscopists, bowel scopists, and capsule endoscopy interpreters, lead nurses in therapeutic endoscopy, nurse consultants and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) specialist nurses.

He noted that the diversity of practice in endoscopy challenges and requires the endoscopy nurse today to acquire the needed academic and professional qualifications, and to continually seek continuing professional developments.

“At the moment, the very few of us advocating for this, have had to go for various degrees of training in foreign countries, from our own pockets, and sometimes supports from some foreign agencies.”

Mr Kpodo said some factors that were affecting the development of endoscopy included, lack of interest and training, lack of exposure, high cost of equipment, cost of procedure, infection control, complications sedation safe handling of equipment among others.

“Lack of government support, insufficient cash flow, lack of equipment in many government hospitals, endoscopy not covered by the national health insurance scheme, little investment in the training of specialists’, high import tariff on equipment and machines, are some of the challenges facing the endoscopy in Ghana.”

He said the ramifications of the roles of the endoscopy nurse were considerable, yet their contribution was often undervalued by colleagues and some managers of some health institutions, saying, it was unsafe and virtually impossible to effectively run any endoscopy service without a well-trained and efficient endoscopy nurse.

“We need to accept that, lots of wrong things have been done over the years to the point that it has become a norm, but all must come on board to tackle the issue with a conscious and deliberate effort to right the wrong.”

Mr Kpodo appealed to the government to work out immediate plans for regulations and accreditation for the numerous endoscopy centres mushrooming as well as the healthcare professionals performing the various procedures.

Dr Kweku Asante Krobea, President, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, said an endoscopy is a procedure that allows qualified health practitioners to view the inside of a person’s body.
He said the universal health coverage and the global goals would not be achieved unless nurses and midwives who make up to 75 percent of the health sector professional workforce globally are supported and empowered to become advanced practitioners.

He said Ghana has had its fair share of the challenges imposed on its health agenda by the growing global burden of diseases necessitating innovations aimed at the creation of opportunities for health professionals to grow their knowledge.

Dr Asante Krobea said everyday thousands’ of children and adults die needlessly because they do not receive basic life-saving interventions that are often locally available but are simply not provided due to indecision, delays, misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment.

He explained that it is more important to define the field of endoscopy and get it more grinded into the health care practice, urging the nurses in their quest to reverse the trend not to be relentless in their efforts and not to disappoint the good people of Ghana.

SNEMIS – Ghana is a society of nurses in endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery, which was put together to unite as a body engaged in any capacity in the fields of endoscopy or minimally invasive surgical nursing.

It is aimed at advocating for safe and effective practice, advancing the science and practice of endoscopy and minimally invasive surgical nursing through education, training and re-training, research, advocacy, and collaboration.

It is also to promote the professional development of its members in an atmosphere of mutual support, and continually collect information, establish guidelines for future professionals and expand specialized educational opportunities.

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Following the most recent manifestation of mental illness demonstrated by Dr. Ajibola of the A&E unit, Ondo State Trauma and Surgical centre who had poured wound irrigation fluid on a licensed and practising nurse, one could be tempted to question the fabrics on which the medical ethics in Nigerian healthcare industry is woven. This was not long after the hopeless idiot, Dr. Emmanuel Okolo of Awoyaya Hospital and Maternity centre, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos meted out a severe beating on a nurse assisting him. You see, there are many mad men on dangling stethoscopes. But the point is that a given specie is always their prey: the female nurses. This is what has beaten my emotion and reason below the belts!

There is no civil or moral justification to amend the act of laying an inimical hand, or even, a blazing tongue upon a fellow caregiver. The barbaric of this is that it often happens in the presence of patients/clients. However, this is obtainable in Nigeria where such school as Bishop Shanahan Hospital Nsukka (among others) would cast a heaving gap, an intimidating gap between the number of females and males to be admitted into General Nursing in the school. Imagine a school admitting only 3, 4 or at most, 5 men into their school among 45 females or more. This is happening in this current era.

Amidst the unscrupulous and jarring attitudes of some doctors on the ward, I have never heard of a male nurse receive such a brutal treatment from a doctor. Men, no doubt, have always gained more respect than their female colleagues. It is no way by male chauvinism, but by the dexterities of manhood; nay, courage, boldness and professionalism. Men question many things and cannot be controlled like a helpless she-goat that is been paraded for sale at Eke-Ozzi market. It’s just baffling that some private hospitals in Lagos, Abuja and other big cities do not recruit male nurses again. As some of them could be as a result of religious fanaticism, extremism and or, mere human stupidity, a good number of them are afraid of men who would come and change a status quo or make a paradigm shift, or even challenge them. Some doctors will not recruit them in their private hospital because they are afraid that such male nurses will gain more ground than they in their own hospital.

However, for the Nursing profession in Nigeria to gain an aggrandized standard, men who are ready to make exploits, both in the brains and in courageous character must be involved. Open wide doors for male aspirants in Nursing schools. Enough of all these girly and fragile manners of nurses. A staunch nurse tutor, Mr. Gold A. relates this fragility and exaggerated obedience of nurses to what he called “Early Childhood Experience” whereby they (student nurses) were treated like Secondary school kids: learning how to open doors for doctors and assisting them do their own duties. This is jaw-breaking! Bullshit!

We do not know who we are probably because we do not also know what we have evolved. We have been enjoying the legal status of “Profession” since 1981 that the Industrial Arbitration Panel awarded us that status. It means we are solely a standardized body and profession whose practice is not fully dependent on another profession, but rather, a complement to other professions which ought to be reciprocated by compliments too. Nursing is never an adjunct of medicine, neither is it an auxiliary. The two professions are parallel; they do not meet. They only rub minds (not shoulders) when the attainment of a therapeutic stardom is inevitable.

I think, in a way, women contribute to a greater percent of our problems. Women, especially these menopausal matrons lazing around with big hips and ancient brains. They should not be made to head units. Clinical expertise is not by age, experience nor political influences and affluence. It is simply by skills and proficiency which is not always gotten by many years of experience. Look at these two categories of mentality now. The White ask: “What can you offer?” The Black ask: “How many years of work experience do you have?”

This is a clarion call. We must wake up. The best way is not by seeking to travel abroad and develop the already developed countries. The best way is standing up and standing out, and eventually standing tall in the very vocation where we are called to serve humanity.

Culled, with minimal edition from: Ogbu, I (2018): A Dangling Stethoscope. Enugu: Timex Enterprises.

A nurse in Japan has been arrested on suspicion of poisoning up to 20 patients so they wouldn’t die on her shift.

 

 

 

 

 

Ayumi Kuboki, 31, allegedly poisoned the elderly people by injecting their IV drips with an antiseptic solution at Oguchi Hospital, around 20 miles south of Tokyo, in 2016.

 

Kuboki told police that she hastened the patients’ deaths so that they died on another nurse’s shift and she didn’t have to break the news to their families, newspaper Asahi Shimbun reports.

 

Nurses at Oguchi Hospital are expected to break the news to families if patients die while they are on duty.

 

‘It would be troublesome if that responsibility fell on me,’ Kuboki allegedly told investigators.

 

Police launched their probe after another nurse spotted bubbles inside the IV drip bag of 88-year-old patient Nobuo Yamaki after he died in September 2016.

 

Bubbles are an indication that a bag has potentially been tampered with.

 

Doctors found a high concentration of an antiseptic solution in Yamaki’s bloodstream and determined that he had died from poisoning.

 

An autopsy was then carried out on another 88-year-old patient, Sozo Nishikawa, who had shared a room with Yamaki.

 

The same antiseptic was also found in his bloodstream, and police opened an investigation at the hospital.

 

Antiseptic was then discovered in the bodies of two further patients, an 89-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman who have not been named.

 

Police also discovered ten unused intravenous drip bags at the nurses’ station tainted with the antiseptic solution.

 

 

Investigators found tiny punctures in the rubber seals of the bags, indicating that the antiseptic had been injected into them.

 

When police investigators checked all uniforms worn by nurses in charge of the patients on the fourth floor, they found the antiseptic on only one uniform – that worn by Kuboki – around the pocket.

 

After her arrest, Kuboki allegedly confessed to killing up to 20 patients, but claimed she targeted only the very sick.

 

However, police have cast doubt on those claims, saying some of the patients who died during that period were not terminally ill.

 

Kuboki qualified as a nurse in 2008 and began working at Oguchi Hospital in 2015, where she was known as a quiet but competent employee.

 

A series of disturbing incidents were then reported on the fourth floor where she worked in 2016, where nurses’ uniforms were ripped and drinks were spiked with a foreign substance.

 

The incidents stopped around August 2016, before the first deaths happened.

 

Kuboki quit the hospital before she was questioned over the deaths in June, before her arrest on July 7. She has not yet entered a plea.

Simbarashe Ndemera (32, pictured above) a nurse at Lutheran Church-run Mnene District Hospital in Mberengwa has disappeared from the face of the earth after the community bayed for blood over his sexual relationship with a teenager.

 

Parents and his bosses need answers as to why he locked up a Lower Sixth female pupil from the nearby Mnene High School.

 

Mnene District Hospital shares a boundary with Mnene Primary and High School all of which are also run by the Lutheran Church.

 

Sources within the church-run institution’s complex said the male nurse had been having an affair with the boarding school girl that he kept at his cottage for four days.

 

“She went missing and the school authorities then sent an SOS after realising that she was not given a pass to leave the school. The Boarding Mistress then got a tip off that Ndemera was having an affair with the girl and could be the one with her,” said the source.

 

The source said the Boarding Mistress only identified as Mrs Shava later teamed up with some teachers and went to Ndemera’s bachelor quarters intending to search his room.

 

 

 

“When they got there, they found the room locked with Ndemera inside. He initially denied them entry and told them to obtain a warrant of search from the police if they wanted access to his room. The hospital authorities were later alerted and used force to gain entry into his room where they then found the missing girl,” said the source.

 

The source said some angry parents later besieged his quarters demanding that he be reported to the police for having an affair with the minor.

 

The school has since suspended the girl and the under fire Ndemera left work without notice.

 

“It’s a hot issue at Mnene Hospital at the moment. Ndemera just went missing, he is not reporting for duty as we speak.”

 

Contacted for comment Ndemera confirmed that he was not at work but denied reports he fled the hospital.

 

“I did not flee, I notified my bosses that I needed to go and see my mother who is not well in Harare. I am in Harare right now but will go back to work,” said Ndemera.

 

Mnene High School headmaster Francis Hove confirmed that the school would discipline the girl who escaped from the school  dormitories without a pass but would not be drawn into commenting further.

 

 

A High Court of Anambra State presided over by Hon. Justice Okuma, has ruled that the act of Corporate Institutions, especially, Hospitals locking up their customers/clients from exiting their premises on the guise that they must complete payment amounts to false imprisonment.

 

This reasoning was given in the recently decided case of Mrs. Ngozi Osegbo, Mr. Chinonso Osegbo and The Registered Trustees of the Synod of the Diocese on the Niger with Suit No: 0/255/2017.

 

 

 

The plaintiffs had taken their 11months old baby to Iyi Enu Mission Hospital for treatment, but died while undergoing treatment. The Hospital was said to have locked up the plaintiffs and insisted that they would not be allowed to leave the Hospital until all payments had been made. The Hospital thus detained the plaintiff for more than 10 hours despite every plea to allow them put themselves together and sought for fund.

 

The claimant therefore approached the court for the following reliefs to wit:

 

A declaration that the defendants owed the plaintiff’s child (Marvelous Osegbo) a duty of care, and they breached that duty which resulted in his death; A declaration that the action of the defendants’ security men in denying the plaintiffs egress from the defendants’ hospital and threat of grievous bodily harm with gun amounted to false imprisonment and assault and General damages in the sum of five hundred million naira and 35% interest per annum (or prevailing CBN interest rate) of the judgment sum from date of judgment until final liquidation of the judgment debt.

 

Delivering the judgment on the 12th June, 2018, after duly considering the arguments on the parties’ written addresses, the court held that the plaintiffs had proved their case.

 

Giving his verdict on the argument that the plaintiffs were held at gun point, the court held that upon examination of the evidence of PW1 and PW2, it is found that that their evidence in that respect which are consistent with their pleading and not contradictory were not challenged under cross examination by the defendants and therefore accepted by same.

 

The court also frowned at the manner upon which the said hospital bill was recovered, adding that the detention of the plaintiffs for 10 hours resulted to false imprisonment.

 

“The act of the defendants in detaining the 1st plaintiff for ten hours in the circumstance of this case no doubt constitutes acts of false imprisonment. I must deprecate the uncivil and indecent way and manner the defendants recovered the said hospital bill.

 

“It is not expected that the first defendant particularly will engage itself in such uncivil and illegal means of debt recovery. Much as this court recognizes the fear in disappearance of patients when it comes to payment of hospital bills or debts generally, I do not find it sufficient to justify illegality that two wrongs do not make a right,” the court said.

 

The court therefore awarded the sum of N500, 000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) against the Registered Trustees of the Synod of the Diocese on the Niger that owns Iyi Enu Mission Hospital together with 35% interest on the judgment sum until final liquidation of same, thus affirming the argument of C. J Okeke Esq (Principal Partner TRULAW CHAMBERS), counsel for the plaintiffs.

 

The judgment by the court has for sure created a landmark precedent on the tort law remedy of false imprisonment.

Nurses in the city do not have it easy while on the job, be it in terms salary or working hours. But now, the latest struggle is getting their experience certificates from the hospital while resigning.

 

For nurses aspiring to go abroad, an experience certificate is the most crucial document, but private hospitals don’t have it easy for them. In fact, while appointing a nurse, these hospitals take a caution deposit of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

 

On resigning their jobs, the management delays the process of relieving them, nurses allege.

 

Speaking to News Today, Global Nurses Association secretary A Raj says, “Nurses are eligible for getting experience certificate within 10 months of working. It is supposed to be issued by the human resource department of the hospital and by the nursing director or superintendent. But hospitals insist on giving it only if the nurses complete two years of service. This is done to ensure they stay for that period.”

 

Years ago, nurses were made to sign a bond for two or three years. After a huge protest, it was removed, but now the caution deposit and experience certificate are used to hold them back.

 

Nurses have provision of putting in their papers in 24 hours, under which they forgo a month’s salary and leave instead of serving the notice period. But most of the time, they are inconvenienced by not being given their certificates.

 

“Many nurses who have to leave for foreign countries for work compulsorily need their experience certificate or they risk their chance of landing a good job,” Raj says.

 

OTHER SIDE OF COIN

 

IMA Nursing Home Board chairman Dr M Balasubramanian, said, “I agree that the certificates must be given. Both sides (hospital and nurses) must stick to whatever agreement is made. Many nurses join reputed hospitals for a low salary only to get the experience certificate to go abroad eventually. For local hospitals, they do not insist on the certificate: a pay slip would do for the document is important in foreign hospitals.”

 

“The hospitals also see a lot of cases where the staff do not turn up for work after getting a month’s salary. So, hospitals need to take caution deposit from nurses. If any hospital is withholding certificates, the nurses can bring it to our notice,” he said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Thursday reiterated that the hiring of 400 Filipino nurses in Germany is a government to government project so applicants are not required to pay anything.

 

In an interview, POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said: “It’s a government to government employment project, applicants need not pay anything. Private recruitment agencies are not involved in this project.”

 

The POEA is the one supervising the hiring of Filipinos which is under the Triple Win Project, a government-to-government project with the German Federal Republic.

 

Applicants must be a Filipino citizen and permanent resident of the Philippines with Bachelor of Science in Nursing, have active Philippine Nursing License, and at least two years of related professional experience (bedside) in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and/or care institutions.

 

Job seekers must also have German language proficiency or are willing to undergo German language training in the Philippines to attain Level B1 (to be paid by the employer), and must be able to attend the language class in October and November 2018; or with Bl or B2 Language Proficiency Level in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

 

Once hired, successful candidates are entitled to receive a starting monthly gross salary of €1,900 (PHP118,000) which will be increased to €2,300 (PHP143,000) after recognition as a qualified nurse.

 

The employer will pay the visa and airfare from the Philippines to Germany and will assist the employee to find a suitable accommodation. The selected nurse will bear the expenses in full or in part of the board and lodging.

 

Qualified applicants are asked to register online at www.ereqister. poea.gov. ph and personally submit the required documents (fastened in a folder) under the heading “German Federal Employment Agency RSF No. 180018” at the Manpower Registry Division, Ground Floor, Blas F. Ople Bldg., Ortigas Avenue corner EDSA, Mandaluyong City.

 

“They should first register online and then they have to personally submit required documents to POEA main office and Regional Offices, where they are located,” Olalia said.

 

The documents to be submitted are cover letter and curriculum vitae with colored passport size picture; notarized copies of high school and Nursing diplomas; board certificate and copy of license from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC); certificates of employment in related field (previous and current, notarized copies); attendance and/or level certificate for German language, if available; and copy of valid passport.

 

Applicants are required to present their original documents for authentication of written information before forwarding the resume to the employer.

 

The deadline for submission of applications at the POEA Central Office and its Cebu office is on Aug. 17, 2018 while applicants in other areas may also submit the required documents at other POEA Regional Offices until Aug. 14, 2018.

 

Interviews are set on September 3 to be held in Manila and Cebu.

The Association of Public Health Officers- Kenya has opposed a proposal by the Ministry of Health to introduce a three year Higher National Diploma in Clinical Nursing and Clinical Medicine courses in all Medical Training Colleges across the country.

 

They termed the move ill-advised since the country already have trained nurses and clinical officers who are yet to be employed by the government

 

According to Secretary General Mohammed Bagajo Duba the proposed introduction of the two courses will affect the running of rural health facilities which are manned by nurses and clinical officers once they are transformed into community health workers. Duba further termed the move as a probable way that would waste tax payers’ money

 

 

 

“We would like chairman of the Board Chairman of the Kenya Medical Training Colleges (KMTC), Prof. Philip Kaloki to know that Kenya already have trained professionals in the two proposed fields who graduated at degree, diploma and certificate levels who are experts in hygiene and sanitation. They should be used to drive the government’s Big Four Agenda of Universal Healthcare to Kenyans,”Dubo said.

 

He said that the Ministry of health should instead hire over 2000 trained public health officers and public health technicians who are still jobless many years after they graduated from the same KMTCs.

 

“We have very many public health officers and technicians still in government service and many others tarmacking without jobs who can be absorbed to drive the rolling out of the Universal Health care agenda’, said Duba during a press conference at the Association’s offices in Nairobi Sunday morning.

 

Dubo asserts that Kaloki sidelined the Public Health Officers and Training Council which deals with training for public health officers, technicians and other cadres in the field of promotive and preventive health when making the decision. In this sense, he argues that there is no clarity on which entity will be charge of formulating the syllabus.

 

He swiped at the Ministry for abdicating its role of coming up with tailor-made policies designed to ensure good standards in the public health sector.

 

The Secretary General states that such energy should be redirected elsewhere. One area being  rolling out a training programme for community health workers on community health hygiene since they work closely with PHOs on promotive and preventive health services.

 

This comes two weeks after Prof. Kaloki was quoted by a local daily saying that KMTCs have already introduced two courses to equip health workers in preparation for the government plan to roll out universal health care.

 

Kaloki who was speaking at the Mwingi KMTC in Kitui County further said the two courses have been tailor made to not only address the shortage of highly trained community health practitioners, but also provide skilled medical personnel for realizing the implementation of the universal health coverage agenda.

Source : Standard Digital