Dr. Jody Lori Offers Keynote Address as School of Nursing in Kenya Celebrates Milestone
It was the 8th Annual International Conference but the first for Moi University’s newly established School of Nursing within the College of Health Sciences.
The multi-disciplinary conference “Adaptations to Global Dynamic – Challenges and Opportunities” featured several of Moi University’s schools including Medicine, Law, Engineering, Dentistry, Information Sciences, and Public Health. It was most significant for the School of Nursing because, for the first time, it was there as its own school. Jodi Lori, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) said, “They had been a department, and this is pretty typical in African universities; schools of nursing tend to be departments within medical schools. At Moi University, they ramped up the education for nursing faculty and became their own school, so they had equal footing for the first time at this conference and it was nice to be a part of the first one.”
Dr. Lori gave the keynote address “Midwifery: Competencies, Coverage & Access in the New Millennium” at the conference. She said, “We talked a lot about educational competencies, developing their own body of research to promote nursing practice, and using evidence for practice.” Her presentation also focused on the future direction for midwifery education, practice, and research. Dr. Lori stressed the importance of midwifery care in addressing and decreasing maternal, newborn, and young child mortality.
During the visit, Dr. Lori met with PhD students and had one-on-one sessions with faculty members interested in developing their own programs of research.
Dr. Lori has been working internationally for more than a decade, often in Ghana and Liberia, but said this was a new experience for her, “East Africa is very different from West Africa and they are really far ahead of many of the places I conduct my research, so it was nice to see the accomplishments they’d been able to make in education and with their programs for their students. They are breaking themselves out of the medical hierarchy and creating their own voice for the future of nursing and midwifery.”
