Gerard Nyiringango, RN, BScN, MScN

I started my career in the nursing profession at Kigali Health Institute in 2003, where I attended nursing courses and graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Nursing (A1) in 2006. From 2008 to 2010, I followed online courses about telemedicine at the University of KwaZulu Natal. In 2010, I attended short training courses at The United States Telecommunications Training Institute in the United States of America, where I obtained a diploma in "Advanced Telemedicine and Distance Learning Application." In 2012, I started attending the bridging programs in Nursing at Mount Kenya University, where I obtained a bachelor's in Nursing Sciences in 2014. In 2017, I began my Master of Nursing Sciences specializing in Nursing Education and Leadership at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, where I graduated in 2019 with Masters of Nursing Sciences. In 2021, I started PhD studies in digital health at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, and the program is ongoing.

I started teaching in 2006 at the Kigali Health Institute (KHI), which later merged with other higher learning institutes in Rwanda to become the University of Rwanda (UR). From that time until today, I have been a faculty member at the UR in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. As a professional nurse, my teaching experience is in nursing. However, I have taught basic nursing skills in dentistry, medical imaging sciences, anesthesia, midwifery, mental health, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, orthopedics, and ophthalmology. I also teach first aid to students from environmental health sciences. My teaching experience falls into three primary areas: clinical teaching in the simulation lab, clinical placement, and theoretical classes.

My teaching career started in the simulation lab. I was privileged to become a part of the team of five people who pioneered simulation in teaching health professionals at the Kigali Health Institute in 2006. Simulation use was a new teaching methodology at the institute and in the country in general. My team and I were tasked with developing the documents still used in simulation labs today. The specific document development I participated in included manual scripts of nursing procedures (checklists), procedures in the form of videos, simulation practice scenarios, clinical evaluation tools used in the simulation lab, and simulation rules and regulations. In my work with the same team, I was also involved in identifying and purchasing the necessary mannequins and related equipment for simulation. Moreover, I was involved in training faculty members on using the simulation lab in teaching. 

Although most of my tasks were related to the simulation lab, I was also involved in the clinical teaching of nursing students. Supervising students in clinical placements was a part of my job description. Every time the students finished practicing in the simulation lab, they went to clinical placement for hands-on experience with real patients. From 2006 until today, I have been involved in designing clinical placement preparation of objectives and assisting students in enacting these objectives in clinical placements. During clinical placement, my significant tasks can be divided into three categories: briefing the students before the start of procedures, working with students during the procedure, and debriefing students after the procedure. Continuous and summative assessments are also part of my duties during the clinical assessment.

Since 2006 when I was a clinical instructor at the Kigali Health Institute, I was indirectly involved in teaching theory; I helped during the modules with the practical components to demonstrate nursing procedures on a mannequin. Along with these demonstrations, we provided theoretical explanations to clarify and relate the class content to practice. In 2014, I became a tutorial assistant (TA) and started teaching theoretical courses. Until today, I have become a member of teaching teams in different modules in undergraduate courses. In 2019, when I obtained my master's degree in Nursing Sciences from the University of Western Ontario, I started teaching a Master's program at the University of Rwanda. My role in teaching teams is to prepare the teaching material, including slides, case study scenarios, and assignments, as well as facilitate student learning under the supervision of the module leader. In all of these teaching activities, I also have the responsibility of participating in continuous and summative assessment processes.

Together with teaching responsibility, from 2011 to 2015, I also worked at National Center for Blood Transfusion as a donor selector. During that tenure, my major responsibility was mobilizing blood donations, selecting eligible donors, and notification of blood results. Moreover, I often participated in phlebotomy and the registration of blood donors.

My research interests fall into the field of Mentorship, clinical Mentorship, online learning, simulation teaching, and virtual patient for the continuous professional development of health care providers. However, as a team member, I was involved in various other research fields. I have published nine articles in peer-reviewed journals, and five manuscripts are under review.