Somaliland: 1st Batch of Locally Trained Theatre Nurses Graduate

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1st Lady Amina Weris

By: Latifa Yusuf Masai

HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – Former traditional birth attendants are now fully fledged operation theater nurses following their training and graduation at Hargeisa School of nursing.

While commending them for past services as traditional birth attendants the Somaliland first lady Amina Mohamed Jirde said the national was that they will perform their new duties as nurses in surgery similarly to their past duties.

The first lady gave the compliments during a graduation ceremony in she presided at Mansour where she was flanked by a deputy Nimco Qawdhan, DG minister of health Dr. Hussein and Ms. Fozia of the nursing training school,” it is a honor for me to preside your graduation ceremony especially the first batch of locally trained theater nurses”. Said first lady Amina Weris promising full government while support to similar training programs and subsequent availability of the skills in all public hospitals nationwide.

While stating that the government is committed to the continued development of the health sector from grass root to the national level, the first lady also commented on health sector stakeholders for the discernable improvement in mother and child health.

According to Mr. Fozia, the new graduates undertook a two year course in operation theater surgery in which she thanked both the first lady Amina Weris for their tireless support the nursing school.

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Somaliland Operating Theatre Nurses Training,

Nurses and midwifes provide almost all the medical care in Somaliland: it will be largely down to them to turn round the country’s terrible infant and maternal death rates.

After the conflict which tore the country apart, there were few trained nurses and midwives left in the country, and those who were working there were often poorly trained. So a small group of nurses and midwives set up the Somaliland Nursing and Midwifery Association (SLNMA).

Today it has over 3000 members, of whom 764 are active qualified nurses and midwives working in health care. It is their professional organisation, promoting nursing and midwifery, looking after its members’ interests, and facilitating training. Working with training institutions, the SLNMA has standardised and unified the training curriculum for nurses and midwives.

The Pharo Foundation is funding a new programme to be run by the SLNMA, to train 30 qualified nurses as operating theatre nurses. The nurses will come from all six regions of the country and will return to these regions once they are trained.

Operating theatre nurses play a complex role before, during and after surgery. This training will prepare them to work within the operating theatre team, preparing patients and supporting them, maintaining a sterile environment, assisting with anaesthesia, maintaining documentation, dispensing supplies and medications, estimating fluid and blood loss, handling and caring for specialist equipment, supplies, instruments and specimens, and performing as a scrub or circulating nurse.

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