The Knowledge library

Education and Training

Cost of Preservice Education for Health Workers: Balancing Quantity and Quality

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.

Report of Training Needs Assessment for Community Health Workers in South-South Geopolitical Region of Nigeria

One of the recommendations from a 2013 CapacityPlus assessment of PEPFAR-funded in-service training in Nigeria was to ensure broader access to new developments in knowledge and technology, as well as sustainability of training, by integrating the in-service training contents into preservice education curricula and continuing professional development programs. This assessment explored community health extension worker and community health officer perceptions of globally-accepted competency domains for public health practitioners across the areas of importance, and confidence in their ability to demonstrate those competencies. To corroborate findings at the domain level, the assessment also assessed these health workers at the individual skill/ability levels, which are mapped to the competency domain areas. Need scores were calculated for each competency domain and individual skill/ability levels. A need score ranking placed the need for computer and information technology access and skills as the top priority among health workers who participated in the study. Financial planning and management and public health science skills ranked a close second and third. Read more »

Health Professional School Leadership and Health Sector Reform, Performance, and Practice

In the transition to the post-Millennium Development Goals era, many low and middle-income countries will be making significant shifts in their national health policies. The leadership that is drawn upon to make policy changes tends to be in ministries of health, flagship hospitals, physicians and nurses associations, and social protection entities. Health professional schools are an additional and valuable—yet often overlooked—source of leadership in health reform and health policy-making. This technical brief highlights some examples of how the education and research leadership of health professional schools has engaged, influenced, or obtained resources from national policy-makers and others with significant influence on the health sector. The brief also reviews instances in which different health educational institutions and professional associations have worked to shape national responses to health system needs.

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative: Report of the Graduate Tracking Software Review and Implementation Workshop

In collaboration with the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Physician Tracking Technical Working Group, CapacityPlus and the MEPI Coordinating Center conducted a Graduate Tracking Software Review and Implementation Workshop in Moshi, Tanzania, July 8–11, 2014. Participants reviewed the beta version of the graduate tracking software and provided additional feedback to finalize its functional requirements, data elements, forms, reports, and other features. Each MEPI-supported school representative developed a draft 100-day strategic action plan for his/her institution with three common outcome objectives: 1) build/achieve consensus from key stakeholders on how to apply the software; 2) define needs for adapting, deploying, and maintaining the software; and 3) deploy the software.

CHEER: An Approach to Community-Based Education Evaluation

This presentation was given at the Community-Based Education Technical Working Group Session during the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Annual Symposium in Maputo, Mozambique.

MEPI Connect – “Uganisha”: Graduate Tracking Software developed by the MEPI Technical Working Group for Graduate Tracking

This presentation was given on August 7, 2014, at the Physician Tracking Technical Working Group Session during the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Annual Symposium in Maputo, Mozambique.

Graduate Tracking Systems for the Medical Schools in Africa: Processes for Developing an Implementation Framework

Human resources for health are critical for effective health systems. In Africa, the number of doctors and nurses required to provide essential health services will be deficient by an estimated 800,000 in 2015. Numerous interventions have been implemented to mitigate these shortages; tracking graduates from African universities is critical to determine whether interventions are effective. Based on a community of practice theory, a Graduate Tracking Technical Working Group was established within the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) network. The group, with CapacityPlus, developed graduate tracking requirements for MEPI institutions and countries through a collaborative process. A framework was created to guide the establishment of graduate tracking systems consisting of seven core processes or elements: 1) general requirements; 2) locate graduates; 3) collect/update information; 4) search and view information; 5) create tracking survey tools; 6) manage tracking survey response data; and 7) generate reports. CapacityPlus’s Dykki Settle contributed to this article in the journal’s MEPI supplement issue.

Sustaining the eLearning Enterprise

This presentation was given on August 7, 2014, at the eLearning Technical Working Group Session during the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Annual Symposium in Maputo, Mozambique.