The Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Nursing Department (MoHAP’s Nursing Department) recently concluded the 3rd phase of the 6th edition of the Nursing Leadership Development Programme, which is prepared and certified by the International Council of Nurses “Leadership for Change”.

The ICN LFC Programme is established in 1995 and running in more than 40 countries worldwide. In 2002, the UAE implemented the programme which is the Middle East’s first country to carry out this program.

The programme comes in response to the recommendations of the global campaign “Nursing Now” and aims to enhance the leadership skills of the national nursing staff, empower them to make strategic changes, and to bolster the role of the nursing profession in achieving the UAE Vision 2021 through the provision of a world-class health system.

Supporting Nursing Cadres :

“The Nursing and Midwifery profession are one of the key foundations of healthcare systems. They play a key role in supporting Universal Health Coverage. Hence the constant need to rehabilitate the nursing and midwifery cadres to keep pace with the latest global updates,” said HE Dr. Youssif Mohammad Al Serkal, Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry’s Hospitals Sector.

He pointed out that MoHAP has established the nursing informatics in line with international tracks, to highlight the role of the nursing informatics specialist in following up on clinical performance indicators for the nursing profession, implementing appropriate improvement plans, and providing high-quality nursing care, in accordance with local and international standards.

“The LFC Program enhances the capabilities of its graduates actively participate in developing and evaluating national health policies, tailoring projects to develop the nursing profession, and developing leadership and management capabilities in the field of nursing and health services, so as to upskill the health policies,” he explained.

Al-Serkal concluded that this programme is supporting the national initiative for promoting the attractiveness of the nursing profession aiming to attract national cadre to engage in the nursing profession.

This would help provide outstanding healthcare that suits the UAE environment and culture and implement the Emiratization plans in an appropriate manner in order to provide high-quality nursing services.

Enhancing the Leadership Skills of Nursing Cadres :

Dr. Sumaya Al Balooshi, Director of Nursing Department, MoHAP, said: “The LFC Program aims to enhance the leadership skills of nurses at all levels, and to provide them with advanced knowledge to effectively and efficiently participate in healthcare management, through workshops and distance learning activities in addition to nursing projects and research.”

The key outputs of the program would help highlight the role of nursing in developing health policies, develop skills, competencies and the strategic planning, effective management, understand the requirements of the international organizations, develop skills and leadership characteristics and apply them through concrete results that are able to reflect the value of nursing to all stakeholders and decision-makers

“The nursing and midwifery profession play a growing role in developing health care policy in the future, in parallel with the changing needs of healthcare by developing the foundations of methodologies for the nursing profession and its specialized skills. This would lead to creating new opportunities for nurses and legal midwives, to further contribute to the health care system,” she concluded.