The Ministry of Health as the primary stakeholder of the projects and the institution in charge of managing all health professionals brought the following problems to our attention:
Objective: The Foundation for Nursing Development (FUDEN) implements a training program for nurses and opens employment and progression opportunities for women in healthcare. Phase one (2020-2021) saw 120 nurses complete their training in the district of Mongomo’s regional hospital. Phase two which began in late 2023 following project preparations will involve the training of 80 assistant nurses in the districts of Anisok, Nsork and Akonibe. The end goal is to improve the quality of health care in EG.
Trident Energy is the sponsor and sole funding partner of the program and has played a very important role to ensure the project is implemented. Trident Energy continues to be involved in the monitoring and evaluation process of the overall project, with each phase lasting between 9 and 12 months between the planning stages and the actual delivery of the training, which takes 5–6 months.
The first phase of FUDEN project funded by Trident Energy served as a pilot and foundation to take the project to a national level. The training program has now been designed based on the identified training needs throughout the country. The positive results and lessons learned have informed the training guide and set a national standard to train professionals in the country. Given the program has been completely tailored to the assistant nurses and their training needs, health care practice, patient experience and treatment has improved across the different functions, roles and hospital settings.
Rather than just being a one-off program, FUDEN works hand in hand with the Ministry of Health to ensure the training continues and some graduate nurses identified and trained to serve as instructors for the next round of participants in the future.
Marcos Bouza Gomez, National co-ordinator of the FUDEN organization-program“ With Trident Energy’s support, the health care services, and the quality of services given to patients in Equatorial Guinea, are improving without a doubt.”