In 1982, in the early stages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a group of health professionals created the Haitian Kaposi Sarcoma Study Group (GHESKIO) in Haiti. It is the second research center specifically dedicated to HIV/AIDS research, services and training in the world. Health professionals from different fields (laboratory technicians, nurses, doctors, psychologists, social workers, pharmacists) come from all over the country to train in infectious diseases in Port-au-Prince at this center.
In 2009, the Nursing Specialization Program (NSP) was created to target interested and qualified nurses to receive additional training in infectious diseases at GHESKIO Centers. This program was created under the leadership of Quisqueya University and GHESKIO who wanted to give more skills to nurses so that they could take more place in the medical world in Haiti. This program also serves to address the lack of providers sufficiently trained to provide adequate services to patients, particularly HIV-positive patients. As more and more HIV patients lived with few or no symptoms of the disease, care by nurses was an option the country wanted to explore. Haiti is a success story in reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the population, going from a prevalence of 3.2 in 1995 to a prevalence of 2.1 in 20211. However, the population does not have sufficient providers trained with 3,358 doctors and 5,042 nurses for a population of 13 million inhabitants2.
Nursing is a popular field in Haiti and there are a significant number of nursing schools in the country. However, the quality of training varies greatly from one school to another. The State has therefore created ways to promote good training and offer better services to patients. To be a registered nurse, a student must attend a nursing school officially accredited by the State of Haiti for 4 years. After completing these 4 years, nursing students take the national exam and only then can nurses practice. Among the criteria to participate in PSSI training, students must be approved and have a minimum of 2 years of practice. Depending on their needs, medical institutions from different parts of the country select nurses meeting the initial criteria and the nurses then travel to the capital for 6 months to undergo training at GHESKIO Centers. Once back at their facility, a follow-up assessment takes place 6 months later. It is only after this follow-up assessment and if they obtain a minimum score of 70/100 that a certificate is issued to them.
During the 6 months within the GHESKIO Centers, nurses receive theoretical information on subjects focused on infectious diseases (physiology, semiology, HIV and palliative care, tuberculosis, STDs etc.) and carry out clinical internships in the various departments of the center (pediatrics, counseling, laboratories, pharmacy, OBGYN etc.).
Claudia Thomas pushed for the establishment of this specialization program. This video gives a summary of her professional background: https://youtu.be/VF5Dr-u-OTs.
- https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.AIDS.ZS?locations=HT ↩︎
- Évaluation des Prestations des Services de soins de Santé (EPSS) 2017-2018 RAPPORT DES INDICATEURS CLÉS, p.34: https://mspp.gouv.ht/site/downloads/Rapport%20preliminaire%20Evaluation%20prestations%20des%20services%20de%20soins%20de%20sante%202017%202018.pdf ↩︎
