Training

The Dean’s Dashboard

Health workforce educational institutions are struggling to meet the increasing demand for health workers capable of providing quality health services to expanding populations. More effective and efficient management of education and training institutions can play a major role in a country’s ability to scale up its production of competent and qualified health workers. Presented at the GETHealth Summit in Dublin, Ireland (November 13–14, 2014), this poster describes findings from a pilot of the Dean’s Dashboard at three schools in Africa. When aligned with a school’s strategic planning efforts, the Dean’s Dashboard offers the potential for regular reports on progress toward strategic goals as well as management information in a form that is easily accessible to institutional leaders. As an open source application, it is an affordable tool for information management and presentation.

Cost of Preservice Education for Health Workers

CapacityPlus, Ethiopia’s federal ministries of health and education, and the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative conducted a retrospective cost assessment of the undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs at University of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Sciences and Arbaminch College of Health Sciences. Presented at the Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 3, 2014, this poster summarizes the study, which used primary source data to estimate the cost of producing nursing and midwifery graduates, identified constraints in infrastructure and materials affecting the quality of education, and showed the financial impact on the cost per graduate of overcoming some of those constraints.

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Physician Tracking Technical Working Group convened a workshop in Lusaka, Zambia, to develop the functional requirements and business processes necessary to construct a framework for tracking graduates. Held on October 21–23, 2013, the workshop was a collaborative effort among the chair of the Technical Working Group, the MEPI Coordinating Center, CapacityPlus, and the Public Health Informatics Institute. Each participating school formulated a graduate tracking vision and identified needed tools and guidance. The group selected software, capacity-building, and infrastructure as the top three priorities on which the MEPI Technical Working Group should focus its time and energy. Going forward, participants agreed to share what each institution is doing to develop graduate tracking, hold institutions accountable for their progress, network to sustain momentum, jointly develop graduate tracking tools, collaborate to develop articles, and assist institutions in tracking graduates across borders.

CapacityPlus hosted a knowledge-sharing and dissemination event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on March 18. The three-hour program featured presentations on key messages from the 2014 Prince Mahidol Award Conference, which focused on transformative learning for health equity; the World Health Organization’s recommendations for health worker education and retention; and innovative approaches and tools developed by CapacityPlus in collaboration with global and national partners. Two rounds of “knowledge café” sessions provided a chance for participants to discuss specific approaches and tools in small groups. Read the related news and access videos and presentations: Read more »