Reviewing and Development of National Curricula for Diploma of General Nursing and Certificate for Community Health Worker in Papua New Guinea
WHO CC UTS has been contracted by World Health Organization, Papua New Guinea (WHO PNG), to in coordinating the review and development of the National Curricula for Diploma of General Nursing and Certificate for Community Health Worker (CHW) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The project aims to strengthen the health workforce education and training in PNG; to support in country challenges with human resources in health (HRH). Challenges include; an aging workforce, increase demand for health services due to the sustained increase in the population, and imbalance in the supply and demand of health workers under constrained production capacity.
Background:
The new National Health Plan 2021-2030 for PNG emphasised the vision of “Health and well-being can be enjoyed by all”; which includes strengthening the competency of health graduates, and to up-scale the production of the health workforce in terms of both quantity and quality. However, the existing curricula for the Diploma of General Nursing and Certificate for Community Health Workers was developed in the late 1990 and finalized in 2002, and fails to align with the current national context, national standards and the new National Health Plan 2021-2030.
The National Department of Health (NDoH) has decided to update both curricula to ensure it meets the primary health care focus, Sustainable Development Goals, Universal Health Coverage and the National Health Plan 2021-2030. WHO CC UTS and NDoH will collaborate with stakeholders from all levels of government and non-government organisations including nurses and community health workers to review and update the curricula to meet the health needs of country.
Project activities:
The project consists of the following activities:
- a gap analysis report of the current Curricula for Diploma of General Nursing and Certificate for CHW.
- development of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning (MERL) framework, and;
- a revised National Curriculum Framework for both Certificate for CHW and Diploma of General Nursing.