Participants, mentors and faculty of the Intern Development pilot programme.
Doha: Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Nursing and Midwifery Strategy 2019–2022 supports the modernisation of the nursing and midwifery practice, which includes the implementation of new ways of working, new roles and new ways of delivering education and training, according to international best practice.
An importance milestone of this strategy has been the successful completion of the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)/ Clinical Midwife Specialist (CMS) Intern Development pilot programme.
Oncology has been one of the first areas to incorporate and benefit from specialist nurses in developing and delivering specialised nursing services. Eleven Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) interns recently celebrated the successful completion of this educational programme, which is designed to build and enhance the advanced clinical practice role for nursing and midwifery.
Mariam Al Mutawa
The programme aims to support the professional growth of the nurses and midwives and promote CNS/CMS integration within the interprofessional teams through a series of outcome-focused, experiential learning activities. The National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) clinical leadership is committed to incorporating advanced nursing practices.
Mariam Al Mutawa, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer and Executive Director of Nursing (EDoN) at Rumailah Hospital, explained the importance of the CNS/CMS intern role. “We wanted to develop an opportunity for our aspiring nurses and midwives to accrue valuable experience in actual clinical situations with the mentoring and support of the experienced staff who are committed to promoting advance nursing and midwifery practices at HMC.
This CNS/CMS pilot programme has helped our nursing and midwifery education team to test out the education program they have developed and have the certainty that it is suitable for HMC and the patients we serve in Qatar.”
The programme, which ran from June to September 2021, concluded with a Recognition Day on October 18, held at Itqan Clinical Simulation and Innovation Center to mark the accomplishments of all participants, including interns, mentors and faculty. Interns were awarded 39 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours in recognition of having fulfilled all the educational requirements of the programme.
The programme was developed by the Nursing and Midwifery Education Department (NMED) in partnership with Al Anoud AlMarri, A/EDoN and Credentialing Manager for Corporate Nursing and Midwifery Workforce and Wellbeing. Additional expertise and special collaboration came from the Mental Health Service (MHS), the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) and the Advanced Practice Nursing Network.
To support educational quality assurance and continuous improvement, feedback was gathered from the interns following completion of the pilot program. Jacqueline Sullivan, Acting Assistant Executive Director of Nursing shared insights about the positive program feedback: “Our teams made every effort to ensure that our intern programme was developed in accordance with the highest international best practice to ensure that participants who completed the education program can work competently and effectively in autonomous practices as well as alongside physician colleagues. We are delighted that 100% of the interns said they would highly recommend this programme to other CNS/CMS interns within HMC.”
