Perioperative nursing course should be separate

PERIOPERATIVE nursing should be a standalone course offered at the University of Papua New Guinea, says UPNG Nursing head of division Dr Nancy Buasi.
Buasi told the Perioperative Nurses’ Society conference yesterday the course was important because perioperative nurses helped to plan, carry out, and assess treatment for patients undergoing surgery. They were involved in the care of patients before, during, and after surgery.
She said presently the course came under Critical Care Nursing and had a limited number of intakes.
“We view this course as a very delicate one, delicate in the sense that we are not fixing cars in a workshop but we are dealing with human beings.So much care and attention is needed during pre-operation, intra-operation and post-operation.
“These stages are crucial and the outcome of the patients’ condition depends very much on the nursing care given during these stages.
“We are planning to upgrade all the nursing courses we conduct at UPNG including perioperative nursing.
“We would also like to review the length of time undertaken for our training.”
Buasi said many students had showed interest in taking up this course but the challenge was that the division did not have the capacity in terms of facilities, resources and manpower to accommodate more enrolments.
She said UPNG was committed to training healthcare professionals from all over the country as well as a few from neighbouring countries and would continue the training of the specialist human resources for institutions that had a proper set-up (operating theatre).