Nurses’ association eyes business venture
Fiji Nursing Association (FNA) is looking at venturing into business to help generate revenue for the association.
It will also help fund benefits and professional needs of its members. The motion of a business arm was tabled airing the FNA annual general meeting last week, and was adopted by its members. FNA president Dr Alisi Vudiniabola said in 2022, when FNA realised the gravity and the seriousness of migration of nurses from Fiji, it put together a ‘think tank’ to strategise ways to mitigate the loss of revenue from its members’ subscriptions.
“The think tank started listing areas of expertise within the organisation which we started to harness and utilise last year,” Dr Vudiniabola said.
“This included going into partnership with research organisations and universities from abroad to carry out research in Fiji and the region. We have started to receive funds and overheads from these research partnerships.”
She said the FNA was blessed with the members who were well educated, risk takers, experienced educators, and researchers. It took a bit of training and tweaking in business to set them in the right path.
“We had our two vacant floors of the FNA building previously rented by TSLS as a natural starting point of our business arm. The floors should be ready soon for business and we have other professional developments and education excursions that the Think Tank has proposed. They are under critique by the Education and Research Committee of the association.
“We are looking at providing health services at primary health care level to manage NCDs and other chronic diseases.”
She said the FNA plans to establish a research centre where researches can be grounded and commissioned by Fijian nurses who are our members.
“An important aspect of this research centre is that all researches that are commissioned from there have a purpose and focus on informing nursing practice in primary health care in Fiji, especially NCDs and communicable diseases, climate change and health. “We have waited too long for the government to “think up” these strategies for addressing NCDs and the surging infectious disorders. They are limited so, we just have to do this ourselves.”