Nurses back from training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

CNMI Department of Public Health, under the guidance of Secretary Dr. James U. Hofschneider welcomes two nurses who have returned this week from a 16-week training course in advanced practice nursing at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Roca Quitugua Sablan and Gaylene Blau were selected to attend the Women’s Health Care Nurse Practioner Program at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center.

They departed Saipan on August 2005 and returned this week to complete their clinical education in the DPH clinical setting under the supervision of an obstetrician/gynecologist for a five-month period.

The additional training these nurses have received will enable them to provide prenatal care, well-women care, family planning, and STD services to healthy women of the community at the Division of Public Health’s community wellness centers as well as outreach services in the different villages.

After these nurses complete their clinical rotations in May 2006, they will be eligible to sit for the national certification examination to become credentialed as women’s health care nurse practitioners.

The CNMI estimates that more than 30,000 childbearing-age women reside within the commonwealth. Utilization of preventive health services will be better met and enhanced by these additional health care providers. The addition of these two nurses to advanced-practice roles will enable DPH to better provide care to women in the community, bridging the gap between need and capacity.

During their local clinical training Sablan and Blau provided, under supervision, prenatal care, well-women care, family planning services, breastfeeding support services, childbirth preparation education, and will assist with the $100,000 federally funded cervical cancer screening project targeted at women who have not had a pap test in four or more years.

Federal grant funding in the amount of $40,000, from the U.S. Public Health Services, Office of Population Affairs, Office of Family Planning, provided full funding for this educational endeavor, covering tuition, textbooks, supplies, and living expenses for these two nurses during their stay in California.

The U.S. Public Health Services’ Office of Family Planning has worked closely with the CNMI Department of Public Health to expand local capacity and provide high quality educational opportunities to the department and its professional nursing staff. (PR)