Training Interventions

The MCH clinic workers in Somalia receive formal and in-service training to perform their professional duties. Their competence in the field was never examined. This study assessed their competencies in detecting malnourished children 5 years and below in Beledweyne. [from abstract]

Nepal’s National Health Training Center (NHTC), the Family Health Division (FHD), USAID/Nepal, and JHPIEGO developed a Comprehensive Family Planning (COFP) course to provide comprehensive and effective training for family planning (FP) service providers in Nepal. Designed to increase training efficiency—by consolidating isolated courses into one complete, standardized course and by introducing competency-based, humanistic training approaches—the COFP course was intended to provide health workers with a complete range of essential FP information and skills necessary to provide quality services to clients. A number of agencies and individuals collaborated to adapt and develop these standardized training materials, and trainers were then specially prepared to deliver this course. [publisher’s description]

Despite ample evidence that HIV has entered the general population, most HIV awareness programs in India continue to neglect rural areas. Low HIV awareness and high stigma, fueled by low literacy, seasonal migration, gender inequity, spatial dispersion, and cultural taboos pose extra challenges to implement much-needed HIV education programs in rural areas. This paper describes a peer education model developed to educate and empower low-literacy communities in the rural district of Perambalur in India. [from abstract]

This presentation outlines a program desingned to train midwifery tutors and midwives to reduce maternal mortality.

The Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) aims to ensure access to basic health care by the Ugandan population. This requires availability of well-trained health professionals. This study demonstrates that the Private-Not-For-Profit Health Training Institutions - the majority in Uganda - have remained grossly under-funded, which poses a threat to achievement of the HSSP. It is recommended that government increases and guarantees its support to these Health Training Institutions as a way of maintaining quality of health worker training. [from abstract]

The human resource (HR) problem in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa has worsened to an extent that it has reached crisis proportions in some countries. Although the gravity of the problem varies across the continent, the situation in some of the countries is so grave that urgent action is needed. A complex set of factors has contributed to this problem, some exogenous, such as the austere fiscal measures introduced by structural adjustment, often resulting in cutbacks in the number of health workers. But endogenous factors are also to blame, including misdirected human resource and training policies, weak institutions, and possibly even inappropriate structures. Section I of the paper lays out the key features of the HR crisis as gathered from a review of available data and reports and interviews with health program managers, health officers and project task managers in east and southern Africa. Section II of the paper gathers a few good practices and mechanisms that have been tried to ease the HR problems in the region. It highlights some opportunities for reform and cites the continuing challenges and risks. [adapted from author]

Universal Basic Precautions (UBP) are not well understood nor implemented by health professionals, though crucial in HIV/AIDS prevention. UBP refers to the prevention of transmission of blood borne pathogens like HIV through strict respect by health workers of rules concerning care and nursing. The objectives of this study were to find out knowledge and attitudes of medical personnel doctors in the Department of Surgery of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to HIV transmission and to find out their current practices of UBP in surgery. This study shows the need for the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and its institutions to develop and implement specific policies on the practice of UBP, training of health care providers and ensuring the consistent supply of protective materials.

WHO, World Bank, and other human resources for health experts globally have recognized the dearth of human resource data for the health sector in many developing countries. In the present assessment, JHPIEGO reviewed the availability of staff deployment and training data from routine information systems in Malawi to inform the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) of deficiencies that would need to be addressed in order to better inform the development and ongoing monitoring of deployment and training policies and plans.
[publisher’s description]

The problem of training human resources in health is a real concern in public health in Central Africa. What can be changed in order to train more competent health professionals? This is of utmost importance in primary health care. Taking into account the level of training of secondary-level nurses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a systemic approach, based on the PRECEDE PROCEED model of analysis, led to a better understanding of the educational determinants and of the factors favourable to a better match between training in health sciences and the expected competences of the health professionals.

This presentation was part of the International Conference on Global Health session, “Expanding Emergency Obstetric Care: Overcoming Challenges in Training and Service Delivery.” It covers the need for training on emergency care for health practitioners as well as the challenges in implementation.

Training private drug retailers can improve early treatment of malaria at home. As well as giving important health benefits, improvements could support over-stretched public health resources, reduce household economic costs and potentially play a role in reducing the rate of development of drug resistance for OTC anti-malarial medications. [author’s description]

A cross-sectional study was carried out in Mkuranga District of Tanzania with the aim of comparing the ability of trained and untrained traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in identifying women with danger signs for developing complications during pregnancy and childbirth as well as their referral practices. Study findings revealed that majority of the TBAs (86.5%) had not received any training. Trained TBAs were more knowledgeable on danger signs during pregnancy and childbirth and were more likely to refer women with complications to a health facility, compared to untrained TBAs. The authors recommend that in resource constrained countries like Tanzania and especially in remote rural areas, TBAs should be trained on early identification of mothers with obstetrical complications and on their prompt referral to health facilities that can provide emergency obstetric care.

The Knowledge Improvement Tool (KIT) was created to allow family planning supervisors to quickly identify gaps in knowledge of Standard Days Method (SDM) providers, allowing them to provide targeted, effective support during routine supervisory visits. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and the cost benefit of KIT to other methods of reinforcing SDM provider knowledge. [adapted from author]

This article discusses the need for effective staff training for qualiy immunization services and describes one non-governmental organization’s experience of training partners in countries. [adapted from author]