Filipino nurses can now hone their global competitive edge through the HCT Academy simulation labs (SimLab), which works within the framework of the Joint Commission International (JCI), the international gold standard for patient care.
This upskilling will help meet the rising domestic and global demand for Filipino healthcare professionals. As of 2022, the Department of Health states that the country is in need of 106,000 nursing staff to fill healthcare facilities across the nation. Meanwhile, an astounding 25,000 Filipino nurses have been deployed abroad in the last three years and still, several countries are specifically looking for Filipino healthcare workers. Among them are Canada, Austria, Saudi Arabia, and Germany – All who have which expressed their desire to hire more Filipino nurses. Some go as far as to offer advanced training as well as scholarship programs to partner institutions.
Through the HCT Academy, Filipino nurses who want to meet the global standard can now improve their clinical simulation practice without having to leave the country to receive that sought after advanced training. Formerly known as Healthcare Advantage Institute (HCAI), the HCT Academy is at the forefront of bridging the industry’s major theory-practice gap or the inability to relate the knowledge acquired in academics and research work with real-world medical practice. The leading causes of this industry-wide problem are the shortage of educators in the nursing field, outdated university simulation laboratories, and limited hands-on experience due to constrained institutional budgets.
The HCT Academy provides a service that gives nursing students access to high-quality SimLabs that are armed with the latest hospital equipment. Each SimLab is also operated by a monitoring system that creates up-to-date medical scenarios for the students to respond to while working with qualified instructors. “We want to teach the nurses the international gold standard in patient care as well as the skills in scenario-based SimLab training so that they can be confident in their training and the diagnosis that they give. When they learn and practice in SimLabs, they don’t have to worry about hurting, injuring, or misdiagnosing a patient. They can just practice and practice until they get it,” explains HCT Academy President Armand del Rosario.
At the core, the HCT Academy aims to develop well-rounded nurses who are confident, competitive, and conscientious.
“Technology gives you all the opportunity, all the accessibility but at the end of the day, this profession, this career, is still heavily guided by human intervention and ethics. We must keep in mind that we have the duty to keep ethics at the center of the practice, as what we’re doing has an impact on society, people, and the environment,” shares Dr. Venus Solar, HCT Academy’s Education Director for Non-Clinical and Accreditation.
For the nurses and nursing community
The HCT SimLab is set up to provide learners with the necessary skills to improve the delivery of patient care in the healthcare industry. Some of its facilities include an Operating Room, Delivery Room, Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Wards, and Private Rooms. Complementing these state-of-the-art facilities are international digital healthcare companies. These internationally created mannequins, provide the learners with realistic and challenging clinical scenarios to test their critical thinking, decision-making, and clinical skills.
HCT Academy’s hands-on approach is performed by qualified instructors who upskill the members of the country’s top nursing organizations – the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and the Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines, Inc. (ANSAP). “In crafting our curriculum, we follow the guidelines set by the Technical Committee on Nursing Education which is composed of representatives from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing, Inc. (ADPCN), and the PRC,” states HCT Consultant Dr. Rhoda Reyes, as she explains how they are given guidance in creating their courses. In keeping with the company’s technological pivot, HCT implemented e-learning modules and partnered with SimLab expert Dr. Sharon Decker of Texas Tech University to enhance their curriculum.
The HCT Academy Medical Partners
The HCT Academy also takes in up a notch by diversifying its laboratories and adding the American Heart Association (AHA) lab for Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) to enhance the learners’ emergency cardiovascular care skills. In addition, the company has also been accredited by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and PRC as a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) unit’s institute. This means that professionals enrolling in HCT Academy courses can accumulate credit units to qualify for an award or increase their professional competence and expertise. These CPD units are especially necessary for medical professionals looking to renew their licenses.
Pushing the envelope further, the academy hopes to cater not just to nursing students or graduates, but also to other allied health professionals, public health response teams, and even citizens looking to expand their knowledge in patient care.
To learn more about the HCT Academy visit www.hct.ph