Nura Kemis 
Nairobi Hospital has made a great milestone by setting up an international examinations centre for Nurses.This means that the Kenyan Nurses will not have to travel to South Africa and India to seek and underatake the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse(NCLEX-RN) Examinations.
This development amomg the Nursing fraternity comes after the establishments of the second international Test Centre in Africa which will be based in Nairobi.
Set up by the Pearson International,the centre is part of the initiative led by the Kenya Government’s State Department of Diaspora Affairs in collaboration with the Kenya Embassy in Washington,DC.It is poised to play a pivotal role in administering the NCLEX-RN Examinations.These examinations will be mandatory requirements for Nurses seeking licensure in the United States,Canada and Australia.
The Pearson Team visited the Country recently accompanied by Health Care Practitioners and employers from the United States to unveil the Centre.Mohamed Noor,a state representative from Minnesota was the head of Delegation.He asserted that the ‘‘Centre will going to be the Game Changer as far as the collaborations are concerned between the West and Africa are concerned”.
‘‘The estblishment of the test centre will eliminate the need for travel,streamline the examination process as well as provide the convinient option for aspiring Nurses.” He told the participants during a consultative forum in Nairobi Hospital as they drmmed up support of the centre.
The Nairobi Hospital Chief Executive Officer James Nyamongo called for more partnerships and linkages to enable the Africa train more Nurses to minimize the brain drain.”We produce highly trained Nurses in Cicely McDonell College of Health Sciences but many of them end up in the West.The West should therefore support the Africans to train more Nurses that we have enough of the to also take care of our local needs like Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in rural areas”.Nyamongo challenged the health care professionals from US.
Once the centre starts its operations,successful candidates in the examinations will be eligible to work in US,Canada and Australia.This aligns seamlessly with the Department for Diaspora Affairs mandated to support the Kenyans in Diaspora in harnessing more opportunities for employment and enterprise development and in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection,secure placements of Kenyans Abroad.
Others present during the delegation’s tour of the Nairobi Hospital were Erika Hughes,Vice President in charge of Government Relations and Strategic partnerships at Pearson at V.U.E;Ambassador Hellen Gichuhi from State Department for Diaspora Affairs;Irene Karari,Deputy Director Skills and Expertise Division,State Department for Diaspora Affairs;Dr.Margaret Sirima,Principal Cicely McDonell College of Health Sciences,Mary Kamau,Director Nursing Services at the Nairobi Hospital
