LEVERAGING TELE-EDUCATION AS AN EFFECTIVE PLATFORM TO PROVIDE EASY ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE WORKERS ON HYPERTENSION MANAGEMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

Objective: This study aims at showing the efficacy of using tele-education in making knowledge easily accessible to healthcare workers by using the University of New Mexico's Project ECHO® model. This model provides healthcare workers access to evidence-based knowledge to combat the challenges associated with sub-optimal training and depleting resources across Sub-Saharan Africa's healthcare system. This effort has led to significant improvement in the quality of healthcare service delivery. Design and method: Aggregate data were obtained from 4 Tele-education sessions conducted between August 2022- November 2022 to improve the capacity of Healthcare workers. Each session included a didactic presentation by a subject matter expert and a case study presentation by a healthcare worker. The case presentation involved citing real-life hypertension-related cases at the health facility to enable peer-to-peer learning exchange, as encouraged by the ECHO® model for Healthcare workers. The impacts of the sessions were measured using the pre and post-session tests to evaluate the knowledge gained by participants. Results: The population of this study was the 1,389 Healthcare workers from different cadres (such as doctors, nurses, midwives, lab scientists, Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), and mid-level managers) who joined the tele-education sessions. There was an average knowledge gain of 11.1%. Over 1.7 million indirect beneficiaries (patients) were reached through services provided by these trained Healthcare workers. Conclusions: The knowledge gained demonstrated the effectiveness of tele-education in improving the capacity of Healthcare workers to provide quality services in managing patients living with or at risk of hypertension. Tele-education cuts across most of the barriers encountered in spreading knowledge to healthcare workers and promotes health literacy and improved service delivery.