By Asa Maina
Outspan Medical College and Outspan Hospital have completed the hospital expansion project as they work towards becoming a state of the art teaching and referral Hospital.
The college, which was started eleven years ago, is working towards its vision of becoming a global reference university in training of service oriented professionals and providing holistic affordable quality healthcare solutions.
The college recently held its ninth graduation ceremony where 407 students graduated in Nursing, Clinical Medicine Surgery and Community Health, Nutrition and dietetics, Counseling Psychology, Intensive Care Medicine, Health Records and Information Technology, Medical Laboratory Sciences and Health services support.
Outspan Medial College Principal Lydiah Muthoni said the institution has more specialized clinical areas, extra lecture theatres, a resource centre and a library for students.
‘Plans to build a multipurpose hall which will increase the number of lecture halls, offices, seminar rooms and examination rooms are underway,’ she said.
The college, which has 1035 students, is in the process of being ISO certified. It is also committed to becoming a global reference University in training service oriented professionals at an affordable cost.
Muthoni said the college will comply with applicable international standards and legal requirement to ensure its client obtain the highest value.
“We shall achieve this by providing an efficient customer focused and friendly service pegged on technology, innovation and critical thinking coupled with continuous improvement by implementing a quality management system based on ISO 9001:2015,” she added.
She revealed that the college’s top management will review established quality objectives and policies for continuing sustainability within three years.
She said the institution has all the facilities required to provide quality and high standards of learning and has been inspected and approved by all relevant bodies for its preparedness to offer quality training.
Muthoni said new post basic programmes are also being developed in line with the requirement of the regulatory bodies which include HND in Oncology and palliative care, Nephlology, anesthesia, critical care and theatre Nursing.
“We have already started the NITA approved Health courses such as Health services support, CDACC programs such as POTT level 5 and 6 and other courses such as HIV testing and screening, BLS and ACLS under the American Heart Association and many others in line with the market demand,” she noted.
She said that the college has adopted e-learning to drive its academic programmes.
95 percent of the academic staff at the institution has been trained and certified in Curriculum Based Education Training as trainers, assessors and verifiers in line with the country direction on matters of education and training.
The college has a public private partnership with Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology where most of its lecturers have enrolled and others have graduated with an advanced/ post graduate diploma in Technical Teacher Education to become professional teachers in their fields.
The college’s partnership with KENET network has enabled it to implement blended online teaching during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic with most students being able to transit to the next level without losing academic time.
The college has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nyeri county government and Laikipia County Referral Hospital through a public private partnership to ensure its students get attachment opportunities. This has seen students get attached in hospitals in Nyeri and at Nanyuki Referral Hospital in Laikipia County.
“The communication we get from these hospitals is that our students are outstanding in knowledge and discipline as compared to students from other colleges,” Muthoni stated.
“This is as a result of the commitment of our lecturers, clinical mentors at the various institutions and support from the board of directors. We appreciate our many clinical attachment and placement sites for helping our students to master the skills they have been taught.”
On Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the college has partnered with Outspan Hospital to reach out to the community.
Some of its CSR activities include participating in health promotions, Covid-19 sensitizations activities, alcohol and drugs awareness, diabetes and hypertension open days, as well as marking the mental awareness day where students are actively involved.
