Aussie Awards supports partners

National

THE Australia Awards in Papua New Guinea is supporting its partner tertiary institutions that provide nursing and midwifery training to deliver preceptorship training for clinical tutors and hospital staff.
Preceptors are experienced health workers who mentor and assess student nurses and recent graduates to ensure that they understand and correctly perform clinical procedures.
According to the Australia Awards website, these tertiary institutions also work closely with the Health Department which has overall responsibility for preceptorship training.
Australia Awards said since 2018, it had invested nearly K200,000 in preceptorship training as part of its partner tertiary institution capacity development programme.
“This has resulted in 137 health workers being trained in this all-important discipline,” the statement said.
“Among them are the 33 new preceptors who completed a one-week preceptorship training at Pacific Adventist University (PAU) in Central.
“Drawn from the university’s clinical tutors and partner health centre staff, the 33 new preceptors developed their mentoring and guidance skills, with a view to applying these skills widely with students and sharing with less experienced colleagues.”
The training also strengthened professional networks by bringing together university academics and experienced frontline health workers.
One of the newly-trained preceptors was Sr Antonia Guba, clinic manager at the Six-Mile clinic in Port Moresby.
“This training has really helped me to supervise the students better when they come to my clinic. I’m planning also to do in-house training with other staff and pass on the knowledge,” Guba said.
Fellow participant Valu Vanua, officer-in-charge at Kupiano health centre in Central, welcomed the training’s focus on mentoring skills.
“Being a preceptor is quite a task, apart from our daily routine,” Vanua said.
“This course has enhanced and improved our skills in precepting, and has also assisted us in supervising nursing staff in rural areas.”
The training is part of the Australian government’s capacity development support for PNG tertiary institutions through Australia Awards, which is undertaken in close cooperation with the national government including local authorities.