Training Methodologies

This study is a continuation of an earlier report that found online continuing medical education (CME) to be highly effective in making evidence-based decisions. [from abstract]

Information and communication technology can play a vital role in training healthcare professionals, across the board - in nursing schools, medical schools, urban settings, and even in rural areas where it is often needed the most, in remote hospitals, health centers and dispensaries that are under-staffed and where the addressable population is scattered. [from author]

The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative evaluation of two internet-based continuing medical education delivery formats and the effect on satisfaction, knowledge and confidence outcomes. [from abstract]

This article aims to produce theory driven criteria to guide the development and evaluation of internet-based medical courses. [from abstract]

This document chronicles the evolution of e-learning among nurses in Kenya. It charts the obstacles - a shortage of qualified tutors, the scarcity of clinical placements - and the priorities to overcome them. [adapted from author]

Poor public health indicators in Tanzania have led to the upgrading of nursing and clinical personnel who currently have just core training. This article reports on a project to assist the upgrade of clinical officers working around sexually transmissible infections within the context of healthcare, education and policy developments in Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

The Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning Wiki provides materials to enhance surgical care in urban and rural environments, using various forms of the modern but low-cost technology now available, presented in a workshop/discussion/lecture format. [adapted from introduction]

This article describes the Public Health Resource Network, an innovative distance-learning course in training, motivating, empowering and building a network of health personnel from government and civil society groups. Its aim is to build human resource capacity for strengthening decentralized health planning, especially at the district level. [from abstract]

The shortages of teaching faculty and insufficient learning resources have hampered the traditionally intensive surgical training apprenticeships. To address this, Muhimbili University attempted to enhance technical skills in general surgery and emergency procedures for senior medical students by implementing a surgical skills practicum using locally developed simulation models. This article evaluates the effectiveness of the program. [adpated from abstract]

This article documents the key stages of a project to develop and implement an online resource for facilitating local implementation and delivery of a program to provide improved access to mental health care. The article also reports on the use of this resource 12 months after its launch. [adapted from abstract]

This paper describes the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of web-based and face-to-face continuing education methods in improving nurses' knowledge about AIDS. [adapted from abstract]

Standardizing the experiences of medical students in a community preceptorship where clinical sites vary by geography and discipline can be challenging. Computer-assisted learning is prevalent in medical education and can help standardize experiences, but often is not used to its fullest advantage. A blended learning curriculum combining web-based modules with face-to-face learning can ensure students obtain core curricular principles. [from abstract]

Taking advantage of societal trends involving the “third sector”, a social model of philanthropy and the open-source software and educational resource movements, provides the opportunity for online education for capacity building at low cost. The Peoples Open Access Education Initiative, Peoples-uni, aims to help build public health capacity in this way, and this paper describes its evolution. [from abstract]

Regional Australia is critically short of registered nurses (RNs) due to an ageing nursing workforce and difficulty in attracting new staff. It is recognised that rural background is the most influential factor shaping a health professional’s decision to practise in regional areas. Because of this, Charles Sturt University offered a bachelor of nursing by distance education (DE), enabling rural and remote enrolled nurses (ENs)to upgrade their qualifications to RN. However, despite the flexible study mode offered, many rural and remote ENs were reluctant to progress to university study.

The paper seeks to analyze the import of distance education for promotion of proficiency skills in the health sector and review ongoing professional development programmes for health workers in Ghana, and come out with strategies to offer training avenues leading to the professional growth of the individuals and economic growth of the country. [from abstract]

This report evaluates the educational effects of a clinically integrated e-learning course for teaching basic evidence-based medicine among postgraduates compared to a traditional lecture-based course of equivalent content. [adapted from abstract]

The human resources crisis in Africa is especially acute in the public health field. This paper describes the innovative aspects of the distance education program at the School of Public Health of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Strategies are proposed for scaling up such a program to meet the growing need in this essential area of health human resource capacity development in Africa. [adapted from abstract]

Strong leadership and management skills are crucial to finding solutions to the human resource crisis in health. Health professionals and human resource (HR) managers worldwide who are in charge of addressing HR challenges in health systems often lack formal education in leadership and management. The Virtual Leadership Development Program is a web-based leadership development program that combines face-to-face and distance learning methodologies to strengthen the capacity of teams to identify and address health challenges and produce results. [adapted from abstract]

The People’s Open Access Educational Initiative (Peoples-uni) aims to contribute towards public health capacity building in Developing Countries, through the provision of on-line education for public health practitioners. This document reports on a pilot module on the subject of maternal mortality was delivered at the end of 2007. [adapted from abstract]

The development of educational context around free and open-source materials available on the Internet has the ability to help build public health capacity in low- to middle-income countries. In a partnership across the global and digital divides, the People’s Open Access Education Initiative has been established to identigy open-access materials linked to the competences required to tackle public health problems, teach through online facilitation by volunteers in conjunction with members of local universities, and accredit learned competences. [adpated from abstract]

This report summarizes key results of the evaluation of a distance learning course in the Standard Days Method. This course responds to a growing demand for low-cost options to training for family planning service providers. This option was considered as a potentially useful alternative to traditional class-room training, which can be both costly and time-consuming. [adapted from abstract]

Infectious diseases kill more than 10 million people worldwide every year. It is therefore vital that doctors receive a good education in this field. Online learning is one way in which doctors can learn new knowledge and skills. We conducted this study to determine whether the infectious diseases interactive online learning packages enabled primary care professionals to increase their knowledge and skills in the area of infectious diseases. [from abstract]

Training in communication skills for health professionals is important, but there are substantial barriers to individual in-person training for practicing clinicians. This study evaluated the feasibility and desirability of online training and sought suggestions for future courses. The conclusion is that online training in communication skills for pediatric mental health visits is feasible, desirable and associated with increased confidence in key skills. Positive feedback from clinicians suggests that a comparison of on-line versus in-person training is warranted. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this study was to establish whether a web-based package on the diagnosis of respiratory disease would be as effective and as acceptable to final year medical students as tutor-led methods of teaching the same material. [from abstract]

This article evaluates a malaria in-service training for community health nurses working at a village level. The program included a computer-based training package, the first of its kind for health professionals in Gambia. [adapted from abstract]

This paper discusses a collaborative effort between two universities in Sri Lanka and Canada to create a distance education program to train nurses in Sri Lanka.

Countries need high-quality human resources if they are to achieve more efficient, equitable sustainable health services. Teacher training, basic training and continuing education for health professionals, and upgrading of knowledge and skills (including health care management as well as clinical and public health skills) are a key strategic investment. In many countries, the need for skilled human resources is particularly acute because populations and health workers are dispersed and isolated. In such circumstances, the provision of effective high-quality continuing education through open learning may help to stem the migration of health workers to urban centres or abroad.

The experience of the Training in Health and Environmental Health in the Caribbean Community project has demonstrated that distance education techniques is an effective medium through which participants in more than eleven countries can be brought together to be educated on topics that are significant to both the region and to individual countries. This paper examines the means through which individuals are educated and meaningful communication among them facilitated.

The peculiarities of the scattered small states of the Caribbean region call for a model of training practitioners that is effective, relevant and sustainable. Distance education (DE) as an approach offers advantages that meet some of the challenges inherent in training family physicians for the region. This paper examines some of these challenges and shows where DE is being used to structure delivery of the programme. In particular, the need for context-specific training, managing time strictures and the cost issues of training are discussed. [from abstract]

The Ministry of Health Manpower Development Centre in Uganda has been carrying out training of health workers as part of their continuing education using both distance education and conventional methods since 1989. It was important, therefore, to develop a comprehensive documentation of the distance learning programmes in order to show the effectiveness and potential of distance education in upgrading medical personnel as compared to other approaches. [from author]