Dialysis Nurses and Blood Bank Assistants received certificates, yesterday at the School of Nursing in Pamplemousses, after having completed courses spanning over six months in Nephrology and in Phlebotomy, respectively. The Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, was present.
The Nephrology course, launched in August 2022, saw the participation of 24 Nurses. The course spanned over some 1,000 hours and a full-time practical and clinical training was held in the Regional Hospitals as well as at the New Souillac Hospital. The course covered seven modules namely: Healthy kidney, Diseases of the kidney, Dialysis, Infection and Infection Control, Renal Transplant, Communication, Counselling, Customer Care, and Information Technology.
Eleven Blood Bank Assistants working at the Central Health Laboratory in Candos followed the course in Phlebotomy. The course was designed to ensure that all Blood Bank Assistants possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to perform phlebotomy in public healthcare Institutions. This six-month training programme of 1,100 hours consisted of seven modules namely: Introduction to Phlebotomy and IT, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Basic Microbiology, Blood Sampling, Blood Donation, Apheresis, Communication and Counselling, Customer Care Ethics and Drug Interaction.
In his address at the certificates award ceremony, Dr Jagutpal underlined that since 2014, dialysis facilities have continuously been expanded and modernised in all hospitals including, the acquisition and installation of new equipment in order to accommodate the increasing demand. He indicated that at present, a total number of 1,472 patients are undergoing dialysis namely 1,246 patients in Government Hospitals and 226 patients in Private Clinics.
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Speaking about training of Dialysis Nurses, the Health Minister emphasised that since the setting up of the first Dialysis Unit in the nineties, Nurses posted in the Dialysis Unit benefitted only from on the job training. The Ministry decided in 2020 that a proper training should be provided to the Nurses working in the Dialysis Units which is a specialised field, he added.
Therefore, in October 2021, a training course was initiated for the Nurses posted in the Dialysis Units with the collaboration of the Mauritius Institute of Health, which led to a Certificate in Nephrology, he stated.
Dr Jagutpal recalled that the training course in Nephrology is carried out in two groups of 26 and 24 participants, respectively. The course for the first group started on 11 October and was completed on 18 June 2022. The second group training, which lasted six months, was carried out from 03 August 2022 and completed on 04 February 2023. The training comprised face-to-face and practical/clinical teaching by different resource persons. The examinations included both theoretical and practical examinations.
The Minister moreover congratulated all Nurses in Nephrology and Blood Bank Assistants for having successfully completed their courses and strongly encouraged them to keep up to date with Continuous Professional Development events and take up further specialisation courses.
