Education and Training

Islam and Family Planning: Changing Perceptions of Health Care Providers and Medical Faculty in Pakistan

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of a training for facility-based health care providers, managers, and medical college faculty members that offered client-centered family planning services, including a module to explain the Islamic viewpoint on family planning. [adapted from abstract]

Global Improvement Framework for Health Worker In-service Training: Guidance for Improved Effectiveness, Efficiency and Sustainability

This short report describes the improvement framework for in-service training programs. It describes the final set of 40 in-service training improvement recommendations developed through a consensus process with representatives of key stakeholders. [adapted from publisher]

Health Management Information System: Facilitator's Guide for Training of Trainers

This manual is intended as a training of trainers manual for hospital management and case teams and for hospital staff on the use of health information management systems - both in terms of how to collect, aggregate and report data, but also to help staff understand the utility and benefits of the data they collect. [adapted from abstract]

Adapting Pacific Medical Internships to Changing Contexts

This policy brief outlines current and needed medical internship programs in the Pacific and the policy implications. [adapted from author]

Accreditation of Healthcare Professionals' Education in Pacific Island Countries: Evidence and Options

This brief discusses accreditation of health worker education programs, evidence on accreditation models, the importance of accreditation in the Pacific and the policy implications. [adapted from author]

Commissioning the Education of Healthcare Professionals for Pacific Island Countries

This brief outlines the issues surrounding commissioning of health professionals education and training, the challenges and establishing systems to help Pacific Island Countries manage the existing and future health workforce effectively. [adapted from author]

Medical Education and Training in the Pacific Island Countries: Evidence and Options

This brief outlines the continuum of medical education and training for the Pacific health workforce and the policy implications of the situation. [adapted from author]

Demonstration Study Comparing Role-Emergent Versus Role-Established Pharmacy Clinical Placement Experiences in Long-Term Care Facilities

This study was undertaken to explore the viability of supervising pharmacy students remotely – a model referred to in the literature as role-emergent placements as a possible model to fill the gap in on-site pharmacy preceptors at role-established sites. This paper discusses pharmacy preceptors and long-term care facility non-pharmacist staff experiences with this model. [adapted from abstract]

Comparative Study of an Externship Program Versus a Corporate-Academic Cooperation Program for Enhancing Nursing Competence of Graduating Students

This study compared the effects of an externship program and a corporate-academic cooperation program on enhancing junior college students’ nursing competence and retention rates in the first 3 months and 1 year of initial employment.

One Student, One Family Program: Health Sciences Fostering Communities and Professionals

This presentation outlines the methodology, aims and results of a highly successful and innovative program of pre-service health education at Lurio University that links future health professionals with the community by assigning each student to a family. The student monitors the family’s health status and analyzes the social, economic and cultural aspects impacting on the individuals’s and family health such as education and nutrition.

VSO and Continuing Professional Development for Health Workers

The purpose of the document is to set out VSO’s position on continuing professional development (CPD) for health workers in Africa and Asia. It aims to guide future policy development around health training and capacity building of health workers and to draw specifically on significant learning over the past few years from VSO’s health and HIV and AIDS programs. [from author]

Continuing Professional Development for Health Workers

This publication advocates for continuing professional development (CPD) as essential for updating skills and the development of a professional ethos for all health staff cadres,including volunteers. It argues that planned, cost effective CPD is essential if national programs are to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move towards providing universal health coverage for the whole population. [adapted from author]

Challenges for Nursing Education in Angola: The Perception of Nurse Leaders Affiliated with Professional Education Institutions

The aim in this study was to identify how nurses affiliated with nursing education institutions perceive the challenges nursing education is facing in Angola. [from abstract]

Educating on Professional Habits: Attitudes of Medical Students Towards Diverse Strategies for Promoting Influenza Vaccination and Factors Associated with the Intention to Get Vaccinated

This cross-sectional study evaluated the effect of three influenza vaccination promotional strategies on medical students’ intention to get vaccinated and associated factors. It also concludes that given previous vaccination is a factor associated with the intention to get vaccinated, education on vaccination of health care workers should begin while they are students. [adapted from abstract]

Factors Affecting Learning and Teaching for Medicines Supply Management Training in Pacific Island Countries: A Realist View

The focus of this review was to determine what cultural and learning factors need to be considered when developing a curriculum for South Pacific pharmaceutical health personnel who work across a range of practice environments. [from abstract]

How Do United Kingdom (UK) Medical Schools Identify and Support Undergraduate Medical Students Who Fail Communication Assessments? A National Survey

This survey aimed to consolidate practices for identifying and processes for managing students who fail communication assessments designed to test a doctor’s ability to communicate effectively (with patients, relatives, advocates and healthcare colleagues) across all UK medical schools. [adapted from abstract]

Qualitative Exploratory Study: Using Medical Students' Experiences to Review the Role of a Rural Clinical Attachment in KwaZulu-Natal

This paper describes the rural clinical attachment experiences of medical students, illustrates that forces affecting such experiences cannot be predicted readily, and highlights that a rural clinical attachment can be of value, irrespective of whether or not the student chooses to practice in a rural area. [from author]

Evaluating an Implementation Strategy in Cardiovascular Prevention to Improve Prescribing of Statins in Germany: An Intention to Treat Analysis

This study evaluated the impact of a brief educational intervention in cardiovascular prevention in primary care physicians’ prescribing behavior regarding statins beyond their participation in a randomized controlled trial. [from abstract]

Learning Styles and Preferences for Live and Distance Education: An Example of a Specialization Course in Epidemiology

This article studied the relation between medical student participant learning styles and participation in live and distance education and the value that participants place on these two methodologies. [adapted from abstract]

Knowledge and Confidence of South African Health Care Providers Regarding Post-Rape Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

The objectives of this paper are to identify the factors associated with higher knowledge and confidence in providers at the commencement of a training on post-rape care and to reflect on the implications of this for training and other efforts being made to improve services. [from abstract]

Clinical Care for Sexual Assault Survivors Multimedia Training: A Mixed-Methods Study on Healthcare Providers' Attitudes, Knowledge, Confidence, and Practice in Humanitarian Settings

This study evaluated the effect of multimedia training tool to encourage competent, compassionate, and confidential clinical care for sexual assault survivors in low-resource settings on healthcare providers’ attitudes, knowledge, confidence, and practices in four countries. [adapted from abstract]

Spread of PMTCT and ART Better Care Practices through Collaborative Learning in Tanzania

This evaluation aims to describe and analyze peer-to-peer learning among health workers and the spread of better care practices within regions and across regions improve care provided to those needing HIV and AIDS services. [adapted from summary]

Barriers to Implementation of the HIV Guidelines in the IMCI Algorithm among IMCI Trained Health Workers in Zambia

Since 2004, health workers that have undergone integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) case management training have also received training in HIV assessment, but follow-up showed that 97% of the health workers assessed did not review or mention the HIV guidelines even though they had received the training. This study aimed to explore reasons for non-adherence to HIV guidelines in the IMCI algorithm and make recommendations on how this can be improved. [adapted from abstract]

Changes in Clients' Care Ratings after HIV Prevention Training of Hospital Workers in Malawi

This study examined the changes in clients’ health-care ratings before and after hospital workers received an HIV prevention intervention in Malawi, which increased the workers’ personal and work-related HIV prevention knowledge, attitudes and preventive behaviors. [from abstract]

Clinical Staging of HIV-Related Illness in Mozambique: Performance of Nonphysician Clinicians Based on Direct Observation of Clinical Care and Implications for Health Worker Training

In Mozambique, clinical staging may be the primary determinant of HIV/AIDS treatment decisions, and the task of staging commonly falls to non-physician clinicians. This study evaluated the quality of performance in clinical staging two years after the first Mozambican clinicians were trained in HIV/AIDS care. [adapted from abstract]

Evaluation of Pre-Service Training on Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness in Ethiopia

This survey was conducted to assess the status of pre-service training on the integrated management of newborn and childhood illness strategy and its ability to equip health workers with essential knowledge and skills to effectively manage sick children with common neonatal and childhood diseases. [adapted from abstract]

Organization and Implementation of Community-Based Education Programs for Health Worker Training Institutions in Uganda

This study was undertaken to assess the scope and nature of community-based education for various health worker cadres in Uganda. [from abstract]

Peer Group Intervention for HIV Prevention among Health Workers in Chile

The authors tested the impacts of a professionally assisted peer-group intervention on Chilean health workers’ HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors using a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and 3 month post-test. [from author]

Does Shortening the Training on Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Guidelines Reduce Its Effectiveness? A Systematic Review

Implementation of the integrated management of childhood illness strategy with an 11-day training course for health workers improves care for ill children in outpatient settings in developing countries. This study aimed to determine if shortening the training to reduce cost reduces its effectiveness. [adapted from abstract]

Medical Education and Research in Pakistan

This comment reveals that despite what seem to be impressive gains in medical education and health research in Pakistan, the actual state of affairs is neither exciting nor remarkable. [from author]