RESUMEN
Background: An Advanced Practice Nurse is a generalist or specialized nurse who has acquired thorough graduate education a minimum of a master's degree. The need for Advanced Practice Nurses is increasingly recognized globally. This paper describes the process, which was undertaken by School of Nursing Sciences, University of Zambia in reviewing and developing advanced practice nursing and midwifery curricula which will be implemented using the Early and Enhanced Clinical Exposure model (EECE). Materials and Methods: The curricula development/review process utilized a modified Taba's Model which followed a step-by-step approach including: 1) desk review, 2) diagnosis of needs (needs assessment), 3) stakeholder consultations, 4) content development, 5) validations and approval from which several lessons were learnt and recommendations made. Findings and recommendations from different stages were used as a basis for reviewing and developing advanced practice nursing and midwifery curricula. Results: Desk review needs assessment and stakeholder consultations identified both strengths and weaknesses in the existing curricula. Major strengths were duration and core courses which met the minimum requirement for postgraduate nursing and midwifery training. Major weaknesses/gaps included some content that was too basic for the master's level and the delayed exposure to practicum sites which limited the development of advanced practice skills. Others were inadequate competence for advanced practice, inadequate research methodology course, lack of content to foster development of personal soft skills and predominant use of traditional teaching methods. Stakeholders recommended implementing advanced, clinical and hands-on Masters of Nursing and Midwifery programmes which resulted in the review of four existing and development of five demand-driven curricula. Conclusion: The reviewed and developed curricula were strengthened to close the identified gaps. Both the reviewed and developed curricula have been implemented using the Early and Enhanced Clinical Exposure Model with a view to producing Advanced Practice Nurses and Midwives who are competent to meet diverse health care needs and contribute to improving patient outcomes.
RESUMEN
Background:Thereisevidencethatmultidisciplinary healthcare teams can provide better quality of care and treatment outcomes compared to that delivered by individuals from a single health discipline. The project on which this article isbased applied the interprofessional education model to university pre-licensure health students in the management of chronic care conditions in Zambia. Methods:Four distinct but interrelated approaches, name ly desk review; module development workshops; review and validation of modules by experts; piloting and review of the training modules were employed. Results: Severalmodelsofinterprofessionaleducationcurrentlyinexistenceandusedsuccessfully by higher education institutions in other settings were identified. While several models of Interprofessional Education were identified, our project adapted the "didactic program, community-based experience, and interprofessional-simulation experience" models. To apply the models, modules of seven chronic care conditions were developed and piloted. The extent to which the module activities promoted interprofessional education were rated between 74 - 87% (agree or strongly agree) by the students. Conclusion: Three models of Interprofessional Education were identified and adapted in the project and seven modules were developed and administered to the students. The process was effective for putting forth an interprofessional training program at the undergraduate level, with the potential to improve quality of care for patients.
