Competing with 438 projects from 238 universities and AUF member institutions in 60 countries, the project proposed by the Faculty of Nursing Sciences, University of Health Sciences of Lao PDR, has been selected for funding from a special COVID-19 fund worth 1.2 million euros.

This initiative proposes to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the quality and safety of nursing care in Vientiane Capital’s central and field hospitals through a multidisciplinary approach.

This project was initiated by the University of Health Sciences of Lao PDR, Faculty of Nursing Sciences, in partnership with the Institute of Research and Education Department and the Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute, under the supervision of the Institute of Research and Development and in coordination with the Pierre Fabre Foundation, received funding of 20,000 euros.

It was based on the observation that, during a health crisis such as the current Covid19, health professionals, and more particularly nurses, were on the front line. The emergency of a new pandemic puts these professionals to a severe challenge. In Laos, nurses were requisitioned to take charge of Covid19 cases without specific training. They had to face a new and stressful situation in an unknown context.

It therefore seemed important to the Faculty of Nursing Sciences to step back from this experience and evaluate the impact of Covid19 in order to document and analyse the nurses’ knowledge, practices, adaptations and experiences and identify the needs and impact on their daily lives; rethink practices based on the results in the development of new management guidelines and anxiety reduction workshops and disseminate the data in an innovative format.

Finally, this research project consists of documenting the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on nurses (knowledge, skills, management, mental load and psychological and social impact) and has the following expected results: a better knowledge of the pathology for a better quality of care in complete safety; a relativization of stressful and risky situations; a reinforcement of the skills of the Faculty of Nursing Sciences.

This project will have a national impact, with the publication of new care guidelines adapted to the Lao context while taking care of the nursing staff and raising the awareness of the population through a wide and innovative dissemination of the results.

Following this call of proposals, 56 projects led by 52 higher education institutions from 37 countries will be funded for a period of 12 months, and their implementation will begin, for some, as of December 2021.

All eligible applications were evaluated by committees of experts attached to the 10 AUF regional offices on five continents. The AUF thus intends to reaffirm the central place of universities in the global development of societies and to pursue its advocacy actions in favor of a greater recognition of the role of Francophone education and higher education as a response to global challenges.

Source: Lao News Agency