Nurses' and Nurse Educators' Experiences of a Pediatric Nursing Continuing Professional Development program in Rwanda
Abstract
Excellence in pediatric nursing education and practice can significantly impact child health globally. Educated pediatric nurses form a strong foundation for healthcare systems globally. In 2016, a Pediatric Nursing Continuing Professional Development (PNCPD) program was created and implemented in Kigali, Rwanda, through the Training, Support, and Access Model (TSAM) for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) project. This partnership project between Canada and Rwanda provided pediatric nursing education to forty-one Rwandan nurses and nurse educators in 2018 and 2019. An interpretive descriptive study was conducted to explore the experiences of fourteen nurses and nurse educators applying pediatric knowledge and skills to academic and clinical settings after participating in the six-month PNCPD program. Five themes emerged from inductive content analysis: Transformations in Pediatric Nursing Practice, Knowledge Sharing, Relationship-Based Nursing, Barriers and Facilitators to Knowledge Implementation, and Scaling-up PNCPD within the Health System. The findings from this study can serve to inform pediatric nursing and education in Rwanda.