The Opening Ceremony of English Camp and Nursing Book Development Camp

06 Jun 2023

Sunday, June 4 2023 -  The opening ceremony of the English Camp and Nursing Book Development Camp was held. The event is the continuation of Pilot Programs: Strengthening the Capacity of Health Polytechnic Lecturers Towards an International Class Health Polytechnic MoH. The event was held both offline and online. The offline ceremony was carried out at Salaman Campus of Semarang Bapelkes, while online meeting was conducted via Zoom Meeting and Youtube Streaming.

The activity was started with the opening of the Indonesia Raya song. The welcome was given by the Head of Bapelkes Semarang, Asep Zaenal Mustofa, SKM, M.Epid., in receiving the arrival of 20 Camp participants from the Poltekkes Kemenkes Medan, Pontianak, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, along with the Director of Poltekkes Kemenkes Medan, R.R. Sri Arini Winarti Rinawati, SKM , M.Kep, the Director of Poltekkes Kemenkes Surabaya, Luthfi Rusyadi, SKM, M.Sc., and the Director of Poltekkes Kemenkes Yogyakarta, Dr. Iswanto, S.Pd., M.Kes.

Furthermore, reports on the progress of the pilot program were delegated to the Director of the Yogyakarta Ministry of Health Poltekkes from the Secretariat General of Health Workers. In the speech for the report, Dr. Iswanto explained that the English Camp and Nursing Book Development Camp at Salaman Campus of Bapelkes Semarang was a continuation of the Kick-Off Meeting in Yogyakarta on 31 March 2023, a meeting for internal preparation of English Nursing books in April, a seminar on Nursing Cases in the Middle East & Preparation of Lesson Plans, as well as reviews of the books by Nursing Department of UGM, English Language Education Study Program of UII, and the Department of Curriculum Educational Technology of UNY in May.

Erick Salenga representing WHO Indonesia said that this activity was a collective effort to improve the quality of education and training in the field of Health Care as mentioned in the WHO’s Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health. He also emphasized that quality education and training programs are the foundation to ensure that all health workers are competent and that the health services delivered are safe and effective. The education provides health workers with the knowledge the skills and the attitudes they need to provide high quality care to patients this is also essential to deliver the optimal care, to ensure patient safety, and to contribute to the overall improvement of the health care systems in Indonesia. Therefore, he said,  improving the quality of lectures in Health Polytechnics is an essential step towards providing a responsive and proficient Health Workforce and that this can be achieved by ensuring that the lecturers are adequately trained and equipped with necessary skills to effectively deliver course content to the students.

The next speech from the Director General of Health Workers, drg. Arianti Anaya, MKM, emphasized the opportunities for health workers, especially nurses, to work abroad. However, this opportunity has not been fulfilled by Indonesian nurses. According to the Director General, one of the reasons why, is the lack of English skills for Indonesian nurses. Therefore, the English Camp Program is a strategic step for Poltekkes lecturers to improve their English language skills as well as developing 20 English-language books to prepare for the international class of the Poltekkes Kemenkes RI in 2024. The outputs of this program will include the availability of lecturers who have the ability to teach in English fluently and the availability of books or modules including supporting English to be taught to international class students which will be implemented in 38 Health Polytechnics of the Ministry of Health.

After the English Camp and Nursing Book Development Camp were officially opened by the Director General, the event continued with a Guest Lecture with Ai Tanimizu, who is a Nursing and Midwifery Technical Officer at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia.