In-Service Training

This article in the June 2015 issue of Global Health: Science and Practice highlights the results of an assessment CapacityPlus conducted in Senegal of a prototype mLearning system that uses interactive voice response (IVR) and text messaging on basic mobile phones. IVR allows trainees to respond to audio recordings using their telephone keypads. The pilot included offering a refresher training course on the management of contraceptive side effects and misconceptions to 20 public-sector nurses and midwives in working in Mékhé and Tivaouane districts in the Thiès region. The authors concluded that the mLearning system proved appropriate, feasible, and acceptable to trainees, and it was associated with sustained knowledge gains.

Report of Training Needs Assessment for Community Health Workers

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 »

Participation in in-service training can be a challenge for health workers, especially those stationed in remote areas. Spaced education is an innovative learning methodology that can be delivered electronically by Internet or mobile smartphone. CapacityPlus conducted a pilot study that followed a convenience sample of 37 Ethiopian nationals enrolled in a spaced education course over a six-month period to determine the acceptability and effectiveness of the methodology in a low-resource context. The course content was codeveloped by Ethiopian and international nutrition experts and focused on the recently revised Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health guidelines on the feeding of infants of HIV-positive mothers. The study suggests that the Internet-based spaced education methodology is acceptable and effective for the acquisition of knowledge in a low-resource context for course participants with a clinical or public health background and moderately reliable Internet access. More research is needed to test the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the methodology among a wider population of health workers in developing countries, and particularly among government and volunteer health workers in rural and remote settings.

Learning for Performance Overview

An overview of Learning for Performance, a toolkit targeted to fix a performance problem or gap when health workers lack the essential skills and knowledge for a specific job responsibility, competency, or task.