The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), has held a training programme to help Qatari nurses develop leadership competencies and to empower them with skills that will help them play a more dynamic role in Qatar’s expanding healthcare system.
Held within Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City and with the support of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the four-day training programme was delivered by international and local experts in nursing, and formed part of the three-year global ‘Nursing Now’ programme that aims to promote nursing and nurses. Sultana Afdhal, CEO of WISH, and Dr Nicola Ryley, chief nursing officer, HMC, the co-chairs of the Qatar chapter of Nursing Now opened the training programme.Other key supporters of the Nursing Now Qatar programme also took part in the programme, including senior nursing representatives of the Primary Health Care Corporation, Al Ahli Hospital, the University of Calgary in Qatar, and Sidra Medicine – a member of QF.
“At our most recent summit last November, nursing was selected as one of the main research topics. The WISH report on nursing noted that there was a massive shortfall in qualified nurses and midwives around the world, that nurses felt undervalued within healthcare systems, and that nurses had a significant role to play at the vanguard of efforts to deliver universal health coverage globally,” Afdhal said.
Dr Ryley explained how this initiative underpins national efforts to develop Qatari healthcare professionals and equip them with appropriate skills for leadership advancement. “Our local nurse leaders are passionate about strengthening the national professional identity of nursing in Qatar, and have shown immense interest in developing their skills to contribute to raising nursing and midwifery standards of care,” she noted. “This is a wonderful training programme for the senior group of nurses and midwives, and our collective focus is now on being proactive and putting the learning into practice to benefit our patients.”
More than 40 nurses took part in workshops and other interactive activities. The various local partners of Nursing Now Qatar have pledged to work together to help identify areas where a unified approach to such issues as recruitment and personal development can be beneficial, and to highlight the role that nurses are playing in maintaining healthy populations.
Participants in the training programme.
