Annabella Gloster participated in a webinar on Tuesday 18th February 2020 and has provided this summary for those of you who want to know more:

“Bongi Sibanda has been working collaboratively with AfroPHC (African forum for primary health care) to bring together leaders of PHC teams to support each in other developments and including the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) role.

Bongi is an educator, healthcare consultant & Advanced Nurse Practitioner with special interests in Interprofessional Education/Collaborative Practice (IPECP) and Health Policy.

AfroPHC delivers regular webinars, discussion group forums, and has a link with the leaders of PHC teams in each country.

They are hosting their inaugural conference this year in Johannesburg 19-21st June 2020. The Africa APN Regional Symposium will be held on the 18th of June 2020 at the same venue.

In collaboration with the Anglophone Africa APN Coalition, which has been the work Bongi has been involved in (2017-2020) (AAAPNC) there are now combined efforts by individual countries to introduce APN roles.

They have had involvement of many organisations to establish this work such as from ICN, ICN APN network, WHO, AANP, AfrIPEN and many others.

Their vision is to advocate and coordinate policy for APN nursing in Africa and they have adapted the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation (2008) within the African context to do this. They are considering developing an Afrocentric model (future research) as the model used was developed in the USA. The Conceptual Policy Framework for Advanced Practice Nursing (Schober et al 2016) was applied to guide the Anglophone Africa APN Coalition work.

Their initial work is looking at nurse anaesthetists, nurse practitioners, advanced practice midwives and clinical nurse specialist.

The leadership pillar must take into account policy development / advocacy as a core area for APN’s in Africa.”

If you want to keep abreast of the work take a look at their website www.AfroPHC.org and @AfricaAPN