The Ambulatory Healthcare Services, part of the PureHealth network -the largest healthcare platform in the Middle East, has launched a training programme for school nurses working at public schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for the academic year 2023-2024, within the framework of supporting and empowering school nursing staff who involved in the school screening program for school students, which was launched by Abu Dhabi Public Health Center.
The training programme is focused on equipping nurses with the latest medical knowledge and clinical skills necessary for their work in the public schools within the Emirate, in addition to reinforcing the application of school screening standards and health promotion of students. The seven-day training, which involves over 300 nurses, was held in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
Conducted by AHS’ School Health Services department in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Public Health Center, Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) and Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE), the training is accredited by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi for more than 30 Continuous Medical Education (CME) hours. The training included workshops on school health policies and competencies, in addition to updates on school screening programme (annual and comprehensive), School age vaccination programs besides, care for patients with chronic diseases at schools such as diabetes, epilepsy and asthma, cardiac and pulmonary resuscitation skills, oxygen therapy, mental health screening, early detection of depression and handling smoking addiction at schools.
Dr. Asma Al Halaseh, Chief Executive Officer, (AHS), said: “At AHS, we prioritise continuous education for our school nurses to ensure that they can provide quality services to the school community, most notably students across the public schools in Abu Dhabi. Every year, we develop our training programme to enhance competencies of our nurses and stay ahead in our student care commitment. The annual training reflects PureHealth’s and AHS’s commitment to upskilling and professional development of its workforce.”
She added: “We also conduct a needs assessment survey among school nurses to determine the topics they consider most crucial to them and incorporate them within the training programme. This year, there is a strong focus on chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, and epilepsy. We highlighted the initiatives by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre to support students’ physical and psychological wellbeing.”
For its part, the Emirates Schools Establishment affirmed its constant keenness to provide periodic training and courses for its educational staff in various fields, in cooperation with its strategic partners. The Establishment confirmed that it is constantly working to raise the standards of maintaining the safety of students in the various governmental schools by implementing specialized courses for all those concerned in this field and raising their skills to deal with any case, noting that it gives high priority to school health so as to provide distinguished health services to students within the school campus In line with its plans to provide comprehensive care for all its students.
As part of this initiative, all school nurses were trained in small groups under the supervision of the ‘Charge Nurses’ from the School Health Services department in Abu Dhabi. All Charge Nurses were also trained as part of the ‘Train the Trainer’ model.
- Dr. Omniyat Al Hajri, the Executive Director of the Community Health Sector at the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, said, “We attach utmost importance to supporting our strategic partners in the school health screening program. This support empowers medical teams to contribute to the early detection of the most common diseases among students, providing opportunities for therapeutic interventions to reduce complications and enhance the health of our students.”
The training programme was delivered by experts working in the healthcare sector across entities, including AHS, SEHA, Fatima College of Health Sciences and the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre.
