First Bachelor of Nursing students in Vanuatu Graduate
On Friday 14 August, 14 nurse educators and clinicians from Vanuatu graduated as the first cohort of Bachelor of Nursing (BN) qualified nurses in the country. The Graduation Ceremony for students from the Vanuatu College of Nursing education (VCNE) was hosted by the Vanuatu Ministry of Health (MoH), and included presentations by the Hon. Prime Minister, Hon. Minister for Health, Director-General MoH, the Australian High Commissioner, Registrar of the Vanuatu Nursing Council and senior representatives from VCNE.
The team from the WHO CC UTS have worked closely with staff from the Vanuatu College of Nursing Education (VCNE) as the primary provider of health care educational services in Vanuatu, Ministry of Health (MoH) staff and other stakeholders to provide technical support and advice for the development and implementation of the BN (Conversion) and BN courses. The BN (Conv.) course aimed to build capability and qualifications of the participants as a form of professional development for VCNE tutors and clinicians, also assisting them to support future students in the new three-year Bachelor of Nursing course, thereby building workforce capacity and nursing educational standards in Vanuatu.
At the Graduation Ceremony, the VCNE team conveyed their gratitude to WHO CC UTS and all the staff from the Faculty of Health for their hard work and collaboration on the BN courses.
WHO CC UTS team representatives could not attend the ceremony due to Pandemic, however they created a short presentation video to be played that celebrated this great achievement and recognised the hard work and commitment from their Ni-Vanuatu counterparts.