Roundtable Discussion on Empowering Nurses in Governing Structure in Kenya.
Amref Health Africa and Health Governance International have partnered to encourage and enable enhanced professional development opportunities for nurses and nurse midwives to move confidently and competently into expanded roles in governing bodies in Kenyan Counties. This collaboration is part of a broader strategic commitment to expand Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
To guide these efforts, a Virtual Roundtable was organized on June 21st to explore the need and nature of such nurse capacity development; and to encourage and foster cross-national exchanges among nursing bodies to amplify their combined voices for positive change.
The Roundtable included a small group of experts from the Nursing Council of Kenya, Amref Health Africa, Minnesota Board of Nursing, and the Nurses on Boards Coalition.
The insights exchanged focused on how to support more nurses into governing body roles in Kenya, nationally and at county-level.
The key objectives included:
- Connecting on the current status of Nurses serving in leadership and governing body roles in the USA and Kenya.
- Discussion on the obstacles experienced to enhance the Nurses roles’ influence and impact
- Provide solutions to build nurses’ confidence and competencies in governing and leadership roles
- Encourage opportunities for future collaborations of the stakeholders involved
The engagement of nurses in Kenya for governance is on the right path and direction. This roundtable provided useful insights into necessary activities and plan to further engage and encourage nurses to be involved in governance bodies. Key obstacles were raised, and participants outlined an initial roadmap to overcome the obstacles.
- Continuing conversation for better understanding of roles of stakeholders in the nursing landscape
- Further collaboration among key stakeholders is crucial
- Further data-gathering on nurses and their opportunities to serve on boards is needed
- Development of a competency model for the Kenyan context would be useful as a baseline for engagement.