Last Updated on 9 years by Publishing Team
POLHN Boosts Continuing Professional Development for Medical Professional
Written By: Website Administrator
11/03/2013
Health professional across Fiji have begun taking Pacific Open Learning Health Net (POLHN) seriously to establish Continuing Professional development.
POLHN was created in 2003 in partnership with Pacific Health Ministries and the World Health Organisation to ensure the availability of high quality training and education resources for health professionals, in order to improve health and health services in the region through online learning.
POLHN now has 16 learning centres around Fiji Islands and operates in 12 countries, providing access to online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses through an expanding network of learning centres, managed by a team of POLHN Country Coordinators supported by focal points. The majority of the centres are equipped with computers connected to the Internet, printers, scanners and projectors.
Early this year 10 Ministry of Health staff in Nabouwalu, on the coastline of Vanua Levu, graduated from POLHN’s basic computer course. Staff Nurse TavaitaLomani and husband IfeiremiDau of Wainunu Nursing Station each attained more than 15 short course certificates: “The good thing about POLHN is that I can access courses anytime and from anywhere. The courses are free, so I do not have to worry about cost” said Ifeiremi.
Inspired by the couples’ story, Staff Nurse Krishneel Kumar of Lautoka Hospital followed their footsteps and completed several self paced courses from Lippincott Nursing Centre and Global Health eLearning Center. After finishing numerous courses during his night shifts; “I feel more confident in dealing with patients,” Krishneel says.
POLHN’s aim is to ensure health professionals have access to a variety of courses and digital health resources available through the Internet. POLHN believes that continuous health education is essential in order to improve the quality of health care provided to the people of Fiji and the Pacific. Many of POLHN’s courses can be completed entirely online, and for health workers who have yet to build their confidence using computers, POLHN offers basic and intermediate computer literacy training
There are more than 1000 short courses, available through the POLHN website. There are also postgraduate courses in health services management and public health, through the Fiji National University as well as a variety of specialized public health courses designed for health professionals. All POLHN courses are offered at no cost to Ministry of Health workers.
Currently, POLHN is running a Poster Competition open to everyone, to design a poster promoting POLHN and lifelong learning. The poster competition ends on 31 March, 2013 and there are 100s of free giveaways. The winner will get chance to be in the 10th year POLHN retreat, so get your creative ideas flowing and send your poster designs to yasinm@wpro.who.int / sarkisn@wpro.who.int
Stay tuned for more news from POLHN and keep learning!