An Italian project to improve nursing in Egypt held a closing conference on Thursday in Port Said. The project, which works with the health ministry, stressed the need to work on the continuous education, training and qualifications of nurses. Kawthar Mahmoud, general head of the Nurses Syndicate, said that this is the third year of cooperation with the Italian project. She said that the Italian side over the past three years have offered technical and educational support, nursing training on modern devices, and sharing of experiences between nurses in the two countries. She urged the head of the Nurses Syndicate to make the necessary changes to improve the profile of Egyptian nurses, especially in the media and in drama, and to show that their role is is no less important than that of doctors. She also stressed the importance of continuous education and training for medical staff. Piero Cappuccinelli, general manager of the project, expressed his happiness with the Egyptian-Italian experience of Egyptian nursing training which offers the full support in education and modern methodologies and shares experience to build a conscious generation of nurses that is able to deal with the patients in an ethical and humane way that contributes to providing recovery, and assured of continuous cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Health. Susanna Padrini, Port Said Nursing Institute coordinator, said that nursing is one of the success factors in health systems. She also stressed the need for psychological support and improving nurses conditions, to be able to prevent disease, and improve infection control in hospitals. She expressed her happiness with the experience and said she hopes that it can be implemented according to Italian project quality standards and can be repeated again in Ismailia and Sharm El-Sheikh in the coming years. Also in attendance were Mohamed Gonium, deputy governor of Port Said, and other nursing representatives from ministry hospitals and different governorates.
