THIRTY-SEVEN leaders from across Jamaica’s four regional health authorities have graduated from the Healthcare Professional Leadership Training Course offered by the College of Health Sciences, University of Technology, Jamaica, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

The course ensued from a cooperation agreement between the two entities signed in July 2021 and is aimed at meeting the professional training needs for health-care professionals and senior health management personnel across Jamaica’s public health-care system.

The first cohort comprised chief executive officers, senior medical officers, medical officers of health, directors of nursing services, chief public health officers, parish managers, and other leaders in the hospital, health departments and health agencies from across the island.

Keynote speaker Christopher Tufton, minister of health and wellness, shared that his vision for the course is to fulfil the need to “create leaders that recognise that we have to apply ourselves to the challenges of the day that we face”, noting that there are many variables within this sphere of administering leadership and management that calls for transformational thinking and application.

Tufton also praised UTech, Jamaica for its practical approach to training, affirming the ministry’s commitment to strengthening the partnership between the two entities to offer health-care training and education.

In his greetings and congratulations to graduates, Professor Haldane Johnson, acting deputy president, UTech, Jamaica, noted that “as Jamaica’s national university, UTech, Jamaica shares in the mission to contribute to meeting the needs for human capacity development and building in the leadership of the health sector and in other areas of professional development in our country”. He affirmed the university’s commitment to “the successful realisation of the expected capacity-building outcomes over the three-year span of this training programme”.

Johnson also informed that the credits awarded from the Healthcare Professional Leadership Training certificate programme, once ratified, can be banked for future utilisation by participants wishing to pursue further training in health-care leadership or health administration at UTech, Jamaica.

Dr Adella Campbell, dean, College of Health Sciences, in her remarks, noted that: “This training is the first of its kind in Jamaica and will no doubt have historical significance.” She praised the course as being “practical and educational”, and said that it success “augurs well for the Jamaican public health sector”.

Programme director and course leader Dr Stephanie Corinthian Reid, who provided a detailed overview of the course, said that it marks “the beginning of a comprehensive approach to ensure the sustainability of the health-care organisation’s mission at the unit, parish and regional levels”. She explained that “greater organisational effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of health-care services in hospitals and health departments” is at the heart of the programme. Critical outcomes, she noted, include defining and determining health services’ strategic directions, improving team dynamics and team building, delivery of customer and patient-centred care, and underscoring the importance of stewardship in professional, management, financial and operational services.

Course graduates Dr Vincent Williamson, head of obstetrics and gynaecology, May Pen Hospital; Dr Samantha Walker, paediatric consultant; and Pauline Dawkins-Palmer, acting director of nursing services, Falmouth Hospital, had high praises for the course, outlining that it was valuable, informative, and that the lessons learnt could be applied at “the personal, family and institutional levels”.