Africa-Press – Liberia. UNFPA Country Representative Ms. Bidisha Pillai, has commended the Liberian Board for Nursing and Midwifery (LNBM)for tremendous efforts to ensure international standards for midwifery education in Liberia.
Ms. Pillai made the statement on Thursday, during the opening of a two-day meeting of the LBNM, intended to rewrite and validate a comprehensive, competency-based curriculum that meets international standards for training nurses and midwives in the country and aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Curriculum of Nursing, and the International Curriculum of Midwives, among others.
The UNFPA Country Rep. said Liberia can now boast of key efforts made in midwifery education; from a certificate midwifery program to a diploma program, and now a bachelor’s in midwifery- this is a major milestone in securing a career pathway for midwives.
Madam Cecelia C. Kpangbala Flomo, LBNM Registrar, giving the overview of the two-day stakeholder meeting on the revision of the Registered Nursing Midwifery (RNM) Curriculum in Monrovia, said the RNM, which started on Thursday, April 20, is being supported by the government through the Ministry of Health and other international partners, including the UNFPA, Last Mile Health, Partners in Health, etc.
LBNM Registrar said as part of her entity’s legal responsibility, they are entitled to develop and harmonize what they called the training curriculum for nursing and midwifery training institutions for Liberians.
According to her, the training curriculum for nurses and midwives needs to be updated every time, and at the LBNM, the policy is that every five years “we update, review, and validate our existing tools, and one of the major tools we deal with is the curriculum that trains nurses and midwives.”
In a special statement and the opening of the RNM Curriculum revision, Dr. Francis N. Kateh, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Health Minister lauded the LBNM for holding such a very important gathering geared toward reviewing the RNM curriculum for nurses and midwives.
According to him, there are multitudes of nursing programs, but most of them do not think about quality. So, it is important that in healthcare settings, quality is not compromised because if it is, the citizens will end up using those bad products.
“So, it is very critical. As you look at this revision, please look at it from the international perspective, but also look at it from our own context,” he urged.
Kateh maintained that a stronger health system can only be built if Liberians begin to do these standards, look at the standards, make sure that they meet international standards, and then work towards them.
He also thanked the international partners for working with the government and others who have sacrificed their entire lives to impact knowledge, most importantly those who are sacrificing with no just reward.
“So, on behalf of my boss, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, and as chief medical officer of this country, I officially declared this meeting open,” said Kateh.
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