Conference touts nursing as viable career for GCC citizens

GCC countries need to promote the profession of nursing as a viable career for their citizens, said Kuwait University President Dr. Abdullatif Al-Bader at the opening here on Tuesday of a conference on GCC health issues. He said Kuwait University aspired to have a college for nursing and to have medical college students do their residency at the nation's hospitals, which in turn requires that these hospitals be equipped to conduct and supervise these residencies. This could happen if cooperation was forthcoming among the University medical college statff and students, the ministry of Education, and the ministry of Health which oversees hospitals and clinics, he said. The conference is poised to discuss some 30 scientific papers on a wide diversity of health issues with particular importance to people of the GCC region, said vice-president of Kuwait University for Research and Scholarship and head of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Center, which is organizing this conference, Dr. Hassan Al-Sanad. He said among these issues will be obesity which is widely affecting large numbers of people in the Gulf region. He said Kuwait was among those affluent nations with high instances of death from contemporary diseases such as heart ailments, diabetes, and tumors. These life-style-associated contemporary diseases cause 36 million deaths among 57 million registered annually by WHO, he said. Concomitant with the conference is an exhibit in which 16 government and private sector entities display awareness literature for those interested in improving their healthy lifestyle, perhaps by shedding a few kilograms or eating the right type of food