According to Dr. Gregory Dever, Regional Human Resources for Health Coordinator of PIHOA, in 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) declared that there is a crisis in the worldwide health workers. And PIHOA has developed a regional strategy to deal with this crisis by working with the local community colleges in the region in developing their own accredited training programs.
In Palau, Dever is working with the Bureau of Public Health and PCC to develop a curriculum which they will submit for accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
“We have an absolute shortage of fully trained health workers in the region, and many of the current work force are under-trained,” Dever said in an interview. “We are trying to change all that by working with the local community colleges like Palau Community College, College of Micronesia in FSM and College of Marshall Islands, to formally train them to provide accredited training to many of the current workforce, and of course, to provide opportunity for new people who want to go into the healthcare industry.”
Dever said they get federal funds to promote training on the health workforce. And one of the areas that they know is in need of training is the public health.
“It is large but it is generally under-trained,” he said. “Although there are a lot of good trainings coming in from Centers for Disease Control and WHO, these are not accredited.”
Dever said, nursing schools need to be strengthened so that they can train as many people as possible. “It is also not just about the number, it’s also about the kind of training.”
For example, he said, non-communicable diseases (NCD) have become the leading causes of death these days. But most of the training in nursing don’t deal with NCD. “We need to train our health workers to be up to date,” Dever said.
At College of Micronesia, PIHOA helped set up the Associated Sciences Degree Program in Public Health, the first of its kind in the region. It is accredited by WASC.
“That’s what we are trying to do here in Palau also,” Dever said. “The Bureau of Public Health is helping us write the curriculum. We want to match the curriculum at PCC with the Strategic Public Health Plan because they are gonna be the client.”
He said they are going to submit the draft to the Curriculum Committee at PCC. If PCC approves it, it will be sent up to WASC for accreditation.
“And if WASC approves it, then we will have an accredited training program for healthcare workers here in Palau,” Dever said. “Within a year, I hope that the same program, modeled from the College of Micronesia, will be up and running at PCC.”
According to Terry Ngirmang, Nursing Program Instructor at PCC, PIHOA has been really supportive with their programs.
“PIHOA financed for a Consultant from Kapiolani Community College (KCC) in Hawaii to come to Palau and review our program,” Ngirmang said.
May Kealoha, Nursing Department Chairperson at KCC, spent a whole week with PCC last year and went through its nursing program.
“We met with the committee and hospital nurses, including the retired ones. Kealoha gave us some recommendations,” Ngirmang added.
PCC Nursing Program has been operating since 1998, and has produced 30 graduates.
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