Project cements partnership with MCHS
The Icap-Columbia University— which is coordinating the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (Nepi) project—has cemented its partnership with the Malawi College of Health Sciences (MCHS) by donating a $42 000 worth minibus.
Icap-Columbia country representative Gertrude Chipungu said the minibus will contribute to the high quality nurses and midwives at MCHS Blantyre Campus as it will be used to ferry students and lecturers to clinical placements and other related training of nurses.
“Nurses are the backbone of health care system and therefore important resources such as vehicles need to be available for their use,” she said.
Last year, Icap-Columbia University through Nepi donated a Land Cruiser to the campus.
Registrar of MCHS Blantyre Campus, Pearson Namachotsa, who hailed the Nepi project, said apart from using Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, students and lecturers will also use the vehicle.
Nepi advocates for increased capacity of nursing education institutions and faculty to deliver competent education and to promote retention through informal and formal programmes.
Recently, it provided scholarships for 40 upgrading nurses from diploma to degree level, 60 nurses from nurse midwifery technician to diploma, 20 nursing students at Mzuzu University, 26 nurses from Christian Hospitals Association of Malawi (Cham) and government to undertake master of science in nursing and midwifery education.
Nepi is also supporting six PhD scholarships for faculty members from Mzuzu University, MCHS and Kamuzu College of Nursing. It has oriented 20 nursing and midwifery assessors. n
