The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council held a launch event in December for its fully functioning human resources information system (HRIS).

Council staff and high-level officials viewed a demonstration of iHRIS Qualify—a training, certification and licensure tracking database created by the Capacity Project and piloted at the Council—and learned how to generate reports, such as a breakdown of nurses who have graduated but have not become licensed. Maps based on the data (created by the Project using a geographic information system) visually displayed the distribution of nurses across the country. In a keynote address, the Project’s Dr. Pamela McQuide urged nurses to take the lead in ensuring that medical licenses are current.

The Council is Uganda’s first health professional association to have completed data entry of its historical registry records into the iHRIS Qualify system and the first to move outside the Ministry of Health. The Project installed similar systems at the three other councils last year; all have been networked using equipment acquired through the Project. Data entry for all councils will be completed by Spring 2008.

January 2008