Glasgow Caledonian University’s WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Public Health has been re-designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation.
The collaborating centre will now be known as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation and the validation period runs from 2024-2028.
The Department of Nursing and Community Health has been a WHO collaborating centre since 1993, and the re-designation represents the latest stage in the relationship between the WHO and Glasgow Caledonian.
The University is the only nursing collaborating centre in the UK and Centre Director, Dr Gordon Hill, said the University was “very proud to receive this prestigious accolade in recognition of our nursing and rehabilitation expertise”.
Dr Hill, who is also Assistant Head for International in the School of Health and Life Sciences, added: “We are honoured to be re-designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation for the next four years.
“This recognition highlights our dedication to advancing nursing education and practice, and our expertise in rehabilitation.
“We are excited to use our status as a collaborating centre to help to strengthen the global health workforce, support health equity, and enhance rehabilitation services for individuals and communities.
“As we continue our collaboration with the WHO, we are excited to drive innovation in both nursing and rehabilitation, assisting in addressing critical health challenges worldwide.”
The newly designated Centre is part of an international collaborative network of centres, designated by the WHO Director-General, with the role of supporting WHO’s strategic programmes around the world.
The main role of the WHO collaborating centres is to provide strategic support the organisation to meet two main needs – implementing WHO’s mandated work and programme objectives, and developing and strengthening institutional capacity in countries and regions.
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation will provide technical input to the WHO that may inform its work when supporting Member States in developing evidence-based resources to support with the implementation of the Rehabilitation 2030: A Call to Action across the WHO European Region.
It will also support WHO`s activities when identifying models of good nursing education and practice by collecting evidence that may inform WHO`s evidence-informed decision-making, and by providing technical information related to the respective area.
Maggie Langins, Nursing and Midwifery Policy Adviser at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said: “The work between the WHO Regional Office for Europe and Glasgow Caledonian University has taken many forms over the last 25 years.
“We are so grateful for GCU’s expertise in supporting our work on strengthening nursing in the 53 countries where we work. This latest re-designation represents a development that coincides with countries’ shifts to modernise and diversify service delivery – especially rehabilitation services – and the central role that nurses need to take in expanding access to rehabilitation services for our patients through collaboration and coordination.”
The University was also designated the WHO Collaborating Centre in Sustainable Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing last September. GCU London’s Professor in Public Health Antony Morgan and Professor in Global Adolescent Health Candace Currie are Co-Directors of the Centre.