Developing an interprofessional transition course to improve team-based HIV care for sub-Saharan Africa

E Kiguli-Malwadde,F Semitala,M J A Reid,D Von Zinkernagel,J Z Budak,J Khanyola,S Martin,A Kazembe,H Conradie,M De Villiers,M Mosepele,E Chilemba,C Haruruvizhe

doi:10.1186/s12909-020-02420-x

Abstract

BackgroundWith funding from the United States Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA), a consortium of health professional training institutions from Africa developed HIV-specific, interprofessional, team-based educational resources to better support trainees during the transition period between pre-service training and professional practice.MethodsTen faculty members representing nine medical and nursing schools in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) developed a training package of modules focused on core clinical, public health, interprofessional education (IPE), and quality improvement (QI) domains related to HIV service delivery. Curriculum development was informed by a rapid needs assessment of existing tools and future needs for HIV education across 27 SSA health professions training institutions. A total of 17 modules were developed, targeted at newly qualified health care professionals to be taught in a series of two-day workshops meant to complement existing institution specific HIV-curricula.ResultsBetween April and July 2019, a comprehensive case-based HIV training package was developed to support trainees in transition from pre-service training to independent professional practice. Each module, addressing different elements of interprofessional practice, was intended to be delivered in an interprofessional format. Thus far, 70 health professions training institutions in 14 countries have implemented the program; 547 educators facilitated STRIPE workshops, with a total of 5027 learners trained between September 2019 and September 2020.ConclusionsTo our knowledge this is the first IPE HIV-specific curriculum explicitly focused on enhancing the quality of training provided to graduating health care professionals working in SSA. The collaborative, cross-institutional, interprofessional approach to curriculum development provides a benchmark for how best-practice approaches to education can be disseminated in SSA.

Highlights

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI), both funded by the United States President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 2010 and 2015, exemplify how targeted investment of resources have led to improvements in pre-service training, retention of health care workers, and the provision and enhancement of research capabilities [2]
Despite advances made with programs such as MEPI and NEPI, gaps persist in the development of the health professional (HP) workforce in many sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries [3]
Needs assessment Given the paucity of Africa-based literature on interprofessional curricula to improve Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) training for preservice learners, we first surveyed health professionals from a subset of African HP training institutions affiliated with the AFREhealth network (n = 30)

Summary

Introduction

Despite advances made with programs such as MEPI and NEPI, gaps persist in the development of the health professional (HP) workforce in many SSA countries [3] To bridge these gaps, SSA countries need to optimize the quality of health services delivered, recognize the synergy that effective team-based care affords, and support trainees in the vulnerable transition from school to practice, when habits in professional practice are first developed and mentorship is often lacking [4, 5]. Investment in high-quality pre-service training is motivated by the goals of achieving epidemiologic control and consolidating existing investments To this end, PEPFAR has repeatedly emphasized the importance of training the generation of health professionals as crucial to ensuring the sustainability of HIV programs that were implemented over the prior 15 years [3]. The need to ensure relevance, quality, cost effectiveness, and equity for the populations must be put into consideration [6, 7]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion