Secondary students debate about nursing profession |03 March 2020

The panel discussion in full swing (Photo: Jude Morel)

Students from different schools across the country explored the nursing profession in a panel discussion organised by the health department last Friday.

The debate took place at the Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education (Site) auditorium and was attended by the principal secretary for early childhood, primary and secondary education, Dr Odile de Comarmond, students from the National Institute of Health and Social Studies (NIHSS) and secondary schools, as well as teachers.

“We launched the 2020 year of nurses and midwives so there is going to be a series of activities during the period of one year and this is one of them,” said acting chief nursing officer Gylian Mein.

She noted that the reason they are targeting secondary students is to encourage them to choose the nursing profession as well as get their opinions on the nursing profession so we can work on how we market it to the general public.

She further added that the activity will be ongoing throughout the year and they will go to individual schools because the number of nurses and midwives has been declining.

“We have noted that there has been an increase in applications to the NIHSS since the programme has started,” said Ms Mein

She noted that the NIHSS has started a programme for students who don’t meet the criteria for the nursing course; this programme helps students build up their knowledge for them to be able to choose which nursing profession they will take up once completed.

The debate during the afternoon included a number of topics, one of which being ‘Is nursing a profession?’ which was discussed by a panel made up of one doctor, two NIHSS students, one male nurse and six secondary students.

Christophe Zialor