The UWI School of Nursing, Mona (UWISON) in collaboration with the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the Great Lakes University of Kisumu (Kenya) will host the 9th Research Internship for Nurses from May 24 to June 18, 2010 at UWISON. Twenty-three nursing research interns from Canada, Jamaica, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda will participate in the 4 -week programme.

The internship aims to build the capacity of junior nurse researchers in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa to play a leadership role in building the evidence base for health policy and practice at national, regional and global levels. Local, regional and international experts will facilitate sessions to be held at UWISON’s Mona and Western Jamaica Campus sites as well as via teleconferencing.

Leaders of this research internship and programme of research are Professor Nancy Edwards, University of Ottawa, Dr. Eulalia Kahwa, University of the West Indies, and Professor Dan Kasaje, Great Lakes University of Kisumu.

The research internship is a part of the “Strengthening Nurses’ Capacity in HIV Policy Development in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean” 2007 – 2012 program of research funded by the International Development Research Centre, Canada, on behalf of the Global Health Research Initiative. The programme goal is to contribute to health systems strengthening for HIV and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean by improving the quality of HIV and AIDS nursing care, supporting the scaling up of innovative HIV and AIDS program and practices, and fostering dynamic and sustained engagement of researchers and research users in the policy process.