Exploring factors affecting the facilitation of nursing students to learn paediatric pain management in Rwanda: A descriptive qualitative study.

Nurse educators and nurse preceptors play a fundamental role in facilitating nursing students' acquisition and utilization of professional competencies. Previous studies about key elements for teaching and learning about pain in nursing education programs include students' personal characteristics and previous experiences; educators' knowledge, skills, and beliefs; learners' exposure to leaders in pain education; and curricular pain content and delivery approaches. These studies were mainly carried out in developed countries, with a context of educational and health care systems different from those of developing countries. The current study explores academics', clinical nurse preceptors', and nursing students' perceptions about factors influencing the facilitation of nursing students' competency for paediatric pain management in Rwanda. A qualitative descriptive exploratory design was used in this study that utilized in-depth interviews with six nurse educators and eight nurse preceptors, and focus group discussions with nineteen senior year nursing students. The study setting included five sites: two academic institutions and three clinical settings. Narratives from participants were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis yielded six themes describing factors that affected the facilitation of students' learning about paediatric pain management. The themes included student motivation, facilitators' attributes, collaboration between academics and clinicians, nurses' limited autonomy for decision-making regarding PPM practices, shortage of human and material resources, and educational qualification. Knowing these factors is essential as it provides an opportunity to design targeted interventions aimed to enhance the capacity of nurse educators and clinical nurse preceptors involved in teaching nursing students about paediatric pain management.

Nursing Theory in the Quest for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are intended to promote a safe, healthy, and equitable world by the year 2030. Nurses are at the forefront of realizing the 2030 agenda through concerned citizenship and professional leadership. Nursing theory informs knowledge development and theory-guided practice essential for nurses working in all domains and in all nations. Although all extant nursing theories are relevant, a select few are discussed in detail to make explicit the links between theory and SDG realization. Middle-range theories are also valuable in helping to contextualize nursing practice through the lens of the SDGs. The SDGs address five themes - People, Planet, Peace, Prosperity, and Partnership - and theory remains vital to ensure nurses working in all settings are equipped to meet the needs of humanity and the world, now and in the future.

Building Nursing and Midwifery Capacity Through Rwanda's Human Resources for Health Program.

Global disparities in the quantity, distribution, and skills of health workers worldwide pose a threat to attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and deepens already existing global health inequities. Rwanda and other low-resource countries face a critical shortage of health professionals, particularly nurses and midwives. This article describes the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Program in Rwanda, a collaboration between the Ministry of Health of Rwanda and a U.S. consortium of academic institutions. The ultimate goal of the HRH Program is to strengthen health service delivery and to achieve health equity for the poor. The aim of this article is to highlight the HRH nursing and midwifery contributions to capacity building in academic and clinical educational programs throughout Rwanda. International academic partnerships need to align with the priorities of the host country, integrate the strengths of available resources, and encourage a collaborative environment of cultural humility and self-awareness for all participants.

Health Professional Training and Capacity Strengthening Through International Academic Partnerships: The First Five Years of the Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda.

BACKGROUND: The Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program (HRH Program) is a 7-year (2012-2019) health professional training initiative led by the Government of Rwanda with the goals of training a large, diverse, and competent health workforce and strengthening the capacity of academic institutions in Rwanda. METHODS: The data for this organizational case study was collected through official reports from the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MoH) and 22 participating US academic institutions, databases from the MoH and the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) in Rwanda, and surveys completed by the co-authors. RESULTS: In the first 5 years of the HRH Program, a consortium of US academic institutions has deployed an average of 99 visiting faculty per year to support 22 training programs, which are on track to graduate almost 4600 students by 2019. The HRH Program has also built capacity within the CMHS by promoting the recruitment of Rwandan faculty and the establishment of additional partnerships and collaborations with the US academic institutions. CONCLUSION: The milestones achieved by the HRH Program have been substantial although some challenges persist. These challenges include adequately supporting the visiting faculty; pairing them with Rwandan faculty (twinning); ensuring strong communication and coordination among stakeholders; addressing mismatches in priorities between donors and implementers; the execution of a sustainability strategy; and the decision by one of the donors not to renew funding beyond March 2017. Over the next 2 academic years, it is critical for the sustainability of the 22 training programs supported by the HRH Program that the health-related Schools at the CMHS significantly scale up recruitment of new Rwandan faculty. The HRH Program can serve as a model for other training initiatives implemented in countries affected by a severe shortage of health professionals.