Strengthening the Role of Nursing in the Public Sector through Education and Mentorship: Haiti

Long before the devastating January 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, Partners In Health and our sister organization in Haiti, Zanmi Lasante, were collaborating with the Haitian Ministry of Health and their Nursing Division to improve faculty preparation for professors at public nursing schools and to strengthen the role of nursing in MOH clinics and hospitals. Several of the MOH/PIH/ZL clinical facilities host nursing students during their last year of training, the “social service” year, and many nurses remain at these sites to work once they finish their training and become employees of the MOH. Following the earthquake and the demolition of the state nursing school in Port-au-Prince, PIH and ZL are partnering with the MOH and several other institutions to support faculty and students at the public nursing school and the results of this new partnership will be presented. There was a severe nursing shortage in Haiti before the earthquake in part due to nurses emigrating to the U.S. to work, others choosing to work in private settings where salaries are higher than in public facilities and a lack of well-trained nurses arising from attendance at unaccredited nursing schools. This presentation will also include evidence from new mentorship programs to support retention of well-trained nurses from public nursing schools who are employed in MOH facilities.