Also as a result of its heroism, in the 1980s EERP became a collaborating center between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for the development of nursing research, a milestone that highlighted the school at the national and international level. Since then, numerous agreements have been signed, both with national organizations, such as the Ministry of Health and municipal and state health departments, and international institutions and governments, such as Angola, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Portugal, the United States, and Spain. and England, among others.
Among the important agreements that were signed through the Collaborating Center, the most notable is that concluded with the Ministry of Health in Guyana to prepare nurses for that country. Professor Silvia De Bortoli Cassiani, Regional Advisor for Nursing and Health Technicians at the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, notes that the EERP is collaborating on a series of initiatives to strengthen nursing professionals throughout the Americas region. “This reinforces the initiative of the Guyana Ministry of Health, which requires more nurses. We are combining all our experience in education with teacher training, to allow Guyana to grow in this area as well.
For Sylvia, a full professor at EERP, this initiative can serve as a pilot for other experiments in Caribbean countries, always with the vision of training high-quality and competent nursing professionals for the health service. “This course is part of the process of reshaping tertiary education to train nurses in Guyana. This project is a result of the actions of PAHO in Washington, in partnership with our Collaborating Center and PAHO in Guyana.
The Director explains that it is up to the EERP to review and rework the bibliographic materials and reference programs, as well as provide guidance and development of educational materials and guidance and support for the implementation of the reviewed materials. In 2023, the first year of the redesigned course will already be implemented. “It is a large-scale project, involving many EERP teachers. The general coordination is undertaken by Professor Carla Ventura, Director of the Collaborating Centre, and the executive core with Professors Lucila Nascimento and Fernanda Jiménez.
When the Guyana government initiated reforms in the country’s health system, the Ministry of Health decided to expand hospitals and estimated the need to double the number of nurses in the country, says Daniel Albrecht, health systems and services advisor at PAHO/Guyana. nation. To achieve this increase, innovation in nursing education was necessary and they investigated institutions that already worked in that country. That’s how they arrived at the University of the South Pacific Ribeirão Preto School of Nursing, which had already been a partner since 2015 in another project. “Guyana is a country with very special characteristics, with different regions facing difficult situations, and EERP was already aware of this reality, which is why the logical choice for this new project was to review nursing curricula and training.”
Other points highlighted by the consultant were the innovation through offering online teaching, the strong experience of the school dating back 70 years, its role in promoting nursing in Brazil and its cooperation with the World Health Organization. The Assistant Director for Health Sciences Education at the Guyana Ministry of Health, Chandroti Bahadur Persaud, shares the consultant’s opinion and says a lot of research has been done in relation to the EERP faculty and programmes. “This is not the first partnership with the School of Nursing. We have already trained Guyanese nurses at master’s and doctoral levels at this school. It is one of the top recommended universities and the quality of USP’s work is recognized around the world.”
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