REGIONAL NURSING BODY REVIEWING CURRICULUM

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) A technical working group of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Regional Nursing Body met in Georgetown, Guyana on 6-9 February to review the regional curriculum and management of the regional examination for nurse registration.

Chaired jointly by CARICOM Secretariat’s Deputy Programme Manager for Health Sector Development, Mrs. Sandra Plummer and Curriculum Development Officer, Barbados Community College, Mr. Joseph Inniss, the Meeting was mandated to define and establish the regional standards of competence; provide the curriculum for the education and training of nurses and establish the specifications for the assessment of nursing performance for the registration and licensing of nurses in the Caribbean.

In establishing clear performance standards, the meeting delineated five key effective domains within which standards and competencies are to be developed. These are nursing professional practice, professional conduct, health promotion and maintenance of wellness, nursing leadership and management and professional reflection and visioning.

Several critical issues were also raised, including the need for greater articulation to facilitate progress from the associate degree to the BScN programme for which the curriculum was being reviewed; the need for some Member States to increase the number of qualified tutors and clinical preceptors; as well as laboratory and clinical facilities for nurses’ education and training to be upgraded, enabling the competency development that is required for quality nursing practice; more resources for training and standardised assessment specifications for registration.

At the end of the four-day workshop, the technical working group produced several recommendations, which formulated a working document. The first draft of the document is scheduled for review in March. The second draft will be completed and submitted to the CARICOM Secretariat by June. The final draft, representing a revised curriculum, standards and competencies will be submitted to the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in October of this year.