As the world prepares to celebrate International Nurses Day on May 12, Mubadala Health continues to drive specialised training to raise the bar in nursing standards and attract local talent, to further support the development of a sustainable healthcare landscape for the UAE.
This year, International Nurses Day founder, the International Council of Nurses, is focusing on the global nursing shortage; how the profession will look in the future; and how nursing will transform the next stage of healthcare. It has declared “Nurses: A Voice to Lead – A vision for future healthcare” as the theme to mark the day, held on the anniversary of the birth of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale.
Chief Executive Officer of Mubadala Health, Hasan Jasem Al Nowais, said that highly skilled nursing staff is a mainstay across its network of healthcare facilities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role played by these dedicated and skilled professionals, and we hope this will elevate further the status of nursing as a career. In alignment with Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s mission to maintain a strong, sustainable healthcare sector, Emiratisation in healthcare is a key priority for Mubadala Health, as is providing excellent training and career opportunities for all healthcare workers including nurses,” he added.
Al Nowais explained the ‘Train for Work’ Emiratisation programme is firmly entrenched across all Mubadala Health assets, creating attractive career opportunities to increase the number of UAE nationals employed across all levels of staff. This is supported by additional training initiatives, such as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s annual Wateen programme that, for a year, helps Emirati graduates such as nurses gain the practical knowledge and skills needed to excel in their healthcare careers.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s Abeer AlBlooshi is an Emirati nurse who has been encouraged by Mubadala Health to continue developing her skills and expertise since joining the hospital in 2017. She is currently Senior Clinical Director of the hospital’s Nursing, Surgical and Transplant Institute.
Abeer, who also teaches nursing at one of the universities in the UAE, said, “I believe we need to change the way the nursing profession is viewed, and to enhance perceptions so that people will see it as a rewarding and challenging career choice that it is. According to some recent reports, it is estimated that only about 8 percent of nurses at public hospitals are UAE nationals.”
She added, “I think we also need to focus on specialisation and advance practice in addition to post-graduate studies for the existing workforce and to showcase the incredible diversity of roles and skillsets within the profession.”
Using the example of Mubadala Health assets, Abeer said, “You have nurses working in general and specialised departments and institutes at our hospitals – Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Healthpoint. Similarly, nurses at Imperial College London Diabetes Centre are trained to be diabetes educators and support patients emotionally and practically in all aspects of managing their condition. Similarly, at Amana Healthcare, nurses are highly specialised in treating long-term and complex cases.”
Alongside these more conventional nursing roles, Mubadala Health’s network also has nurses trained in triaging patients for telemedicine, providing remote care monitoring, and swabbing patients at PCR screening stations.
Abeer added that Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi offers various training and development programmes for its nurses, for example, the Charge Nurse Leadership Journey, which focuses on developing soft skills and has 72 nurses enrolled.
In addition to specialised training delivered by Mubadala Health facilities for their nurses, ICLDC offers broader training opportunities to enhance diabetes nursing skills in the UAE as a whole. Its one-year Imperial Diabetes Educator Training Course (IDET) multidisciplinary programme aims to equip healthcare employees such as nurses, to work in diabetes education and management in a variety of settings. It also offers ad hoc complimentary courses in diabetes to nurses across the UAE so that they may improve their skills.
