Nurse leadership for specialist practice: A collaborative, capacity building project in Mozambique

Bruce, Judith C.

Tuesday, 19 November 2013: 10:20 AM

Judith C. Bruce, PhD, RN, RM
School of Therapeutic Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Marcos Canda, RN, MSN
Department of Nursing, Instituto de Ciencias de Saude (ISCISA), Maputo, Mozambique

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to acquire knowledge of strategies for cross-border collaboration to build capacity in future nurse leaders.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to learn about and appreciate this project's philanthropic giving spirit in the building of nurse leadership in a developing country.

Compared to global health indicators, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease, which is compounded, at a micro-level, by the lack of appropriately skilled nurse clinicians and nurse researchers. The health strategy of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) urges all countries to embark on a focused capacity-building drive through multi-country partnerships to address the health care needs of sub-Saharan Africa (Mogobe, Bruce & Meyer, 2009).

This capacity-building project brings together academic institutions, government departments and medical and nurse clinicians in a cross-border partnership between South Africa and Mozambique for the development of nurse leadership. The ultimate goal of the project is to build local leadership capacity in 1) research, 2) education and training, and 3) clinical practice. Clinical practice leadership development was informed by two areas of need gleaned from the country’s burden of disease and from a situational analysis conducted at the beginning of the project. These are: maternal and neonatal health and critical care nursing.

In this presentation we describe the objectives of the project, the completed implementation plan and an evaluative summary based on qualitative findings of interviews with two partner groups. We conclude that the project’s focus on the local production of highly skilled nurse specialists and researchers addresses the skills gap needed to change the health profile of Mozambican communities. Sustainability is ensured, by the simultaneous production of nurse educators that would lead further capacity-building initiatives.

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