By Kuda Pembere in Chinhoyi
CHINHOYI School of Midwifery is one of the six pilot nursing schools selected to conduct studies using an e-learning platform for midwifery.
The platform, a first of its kind in the country and was created to close the gap created by the shortage of midwifery tutors in Zimbabwe due to brain drain.
Officiating the launch, acting Health and Child Care Minister, Professor Paul Mavima said the e-learning platform for midwifery learning shows the Ministry of Health’s commitment to move towards improving learning experience through incorporating cutting edge technological trends.
He said the country needed a skills revolution coupled with prioritizing the health of its citizens.
The advancement of technology platforms and internet availability has created opportunities for educationists to harness ICTs for the improvement of education services.
“The coming of COVID-19 pandemic with its requirement decreased physical contact made the need for effective technology driven learning systems more urgent. It is against this background that Nursing services department took the initiative to introduce e-learning in nurse and midwifery education,” the Minister added.
He also said E-learning was crucial to Zimbabwe because it standardises training across various institutions, ensuring uniformity and quality. He said it provides our students and faculty with access to up-to-date resources and collaborative tools that transcend traditional classroom boundaries.
UNFPA Representative to Zimbabwe, Miranda Tabifor said as part of her organization’s vision that ensures no woman should die giving birth, they place midwives at the centre of their operations.
“And if we connect this learning platform that we’re putting in place, it is supporting these heroes, the midwives who are there between life and death of our mothers and sisters when they are giving birth. That is why we are so excited to be part of this history and this marvelous journey that we’ve heard,” she said.
She added that research has shown that midwives provide 90 percent of Sexual reproductive health services.
“Evidence consistently demonstrates that when midwives are well equipped, trained in accordance to international standards and are adequate in number they can provide up to 90% of integrated sexual reproductive health and rights services and avert two-thirds of preventable maternal and newborn deaths,” Tabifor said.
“In keeping with the technological developments and innovations, it is imperative that we embrace innovation to enhance the quality of midwifery education.”
The UNFPA Zimbabwe country representative said a total of US$273 000 was injected into the purchasing of the Moodle e-learning for midwifery platform, the laptops, desktops and visual screens.
Dr Lillian Dodzo, Deputy Director Nurse Training and Education in the Health Ministry said following the launch, they will roll out the platform to five more midwifery schools which under the pilot program.
“Then we had a phase two content development which is just been conducted, three to seven June in Chinhoyi. And the midwifery educators participating in this exercise are finalizing content development on some outstanding areas and hoping to finish by the end of June.
“One of the important steps was to launch the e-learning in six sites which are Chinhoyi, Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, Karanda, Mpilo, St. Luke’s and Masvingo Schools of Midwifery. And there will be need to conduct some support and supervision and evaluation which will actually help to identify gaps in the success stories. Our plan is to cascade e-learning to PCN and general needs training schools,” she said.
In the platform, nursing tutors locally and abroad can conduct lessons to their students. Students can attend lessons remotely without having to be present physically for lessons.
