ANEC stakeholders in family photo after leadership conference in Buea
By Andrew Nsoseka
The Association of Nurse Educators Cameroon (ANEC) held its second Leadership Conference on August 03 in Buea. The one-day conference took place in the Board Room of Catharina Natang head office, attended by 15 delegates.
The meeting was held under the theme: “The Future of Cameroon Nursing Education: Crafting Vision 2030.” The agenda included presentations from Dr. Maboh M. Nkwati, Ndele Charles, Dr. Nahyeni Bassah, and Dr. Kum Cleopatra.
Participants deliberated on the current state of nurse education in Cameroon and explored potential orientations for future directions. Participants recognised the tension between nursing programmes organised by the Ministry of Higher Education on one side and the Ministry of Public Health on the other. ANEC believes in high-quality education for nurses from entry-level, all the way to specialisation degrees at master and doctoral levels. The nurse educators agreed that the quality of nurse education should prepare nurses to meet the needs of service users in diverse settings within their scope of practice. To achieve this, they emphasised that those who teach nursing students must be competent nurses with high ethical standards who have also received specialised training in nurse education.
The stakeholders said these specialised nurses should be at the core of education policy development, implementation and evaluation. Delegates agreed to develop the Vision 2030 document under the following main themes: Consolidating the Educator Role, Transforming Education, Nurse Education Policy, and Scientific Practice and Scholarship. The Steering Committee for implementing this task included Donfack K. Ariane, Nyenti Pauline, Epie Ruffina, Meh K. Kelvin, Ayah A. Sangbong, and Ndele Charles.
In other resolutions, members were encouraged to develop and sharpen their scientific writing skills by regularly publishing in the ANEC newsletter – The Lantern. The Executive Committee agreed to develop a Charter to guide the creation and operation of local and international chapters of ANEC. In a post-meeting interview, the National President, Dr. Maboh Nkwati said ANEC was created in 2011 and legally registered in 2014. The mission is to champion and actively contribute to the improvement and advancement of nurse education in Cameroon. It seeks to collaborate with the Ministries supervising nurse education and all other relevant stakeholders; promote evidence-based innovation in nurse education; promote continuing education among nurses and lead advocacy for nurse educators and researchers.
