Curriculum Development for Maternal, Newborn, Child Health: International Collaboration to Enhance Nursing Education in Rwanda

Purpose: This presentation reports on an established Canada-Rwanda collaboration between nursing faculty at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada) and the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Rwanda (Kigali, Rwanda) along with decision-makers in the health and education sectors on a capacity building project to address maternal, newborn, and child health in Rwanda (MNCHR). Specifically, we discuss a Canadian government funded multi-phase project aimed at enhancing nursing neonatal and pediatric resources in Rwanda.  

Methods: A collaboration between Canada and Rwanda was established in 2006 to enhance nursing capacity in Rwanda.  This collaboration led to the implementation of the first baccalaureate nursing program in Rwanda.  Based, in part, on this successful partnership, the Canadian government funded the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Rwanda project (2011-2014) to support enhancements to neonatal and pediatric nursing curriculum and practice (Western University, 2013)). Extensive consultation was conducted with Rwandan partners in the health and education sector to identify strategies that strengthen health systems to improve appropriate health service access and delivery at the local level. A key set of strategies focused on ensuring nurses had the necessary competencies to provide care to children. A needs assessment using the pediatric competencies developed by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (2013) was conducted to identify service delivery issues and education capacity to understand the pediatric nursing competencies required to meet population health needs in Rwanda.  Curriculum revision, program development, and pediatric specialty education for nursing instructors was supported by Western University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Health Sciences Specialty Nursing (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada).    

Results: The needs assessment identified significant gaps in health service delivery of advanced pediatric nursing including gaps in faculty capacity for teaching pediatric nursing and the need for a post-basic education specialty focused on pediatric nursing. Nurse educators identified specific areas for enhancement of pediatric competencies in their capacity to teach advanced pediatric nursing. A pediatric nursing curriculum was developed in collaboration with Canadian-Rwanda experts. The curriculum was positively reviewed by an international expert. Subsequently, five nurse instructors in the School of Nursing (University of Rwanda) were supported to begin course work by distance to enhance their pediatric nursing knowledge and skills, and five nurse educators were supported to attain their graduate degree with a focus on education leadership and pediatric nursing. In this presentation we will share insights regarding the strengths and learnings from this Canada-Rwanda collaboration and how these will inform future pediatric curriculum development work with partners in Burundi.

Conclusion: This successful international collaboration has been extended through funding from the Canadian government to include a partnership with Burundi (2016-2019) where support will focus on strengthening programs in pediatric nursing to ensure a cadre of competent nurses to meet the needs of the population.