Human Resources for Health in Maternal, Neonatal and - HRH ...

Integrated training activities
Partnerships facilitate the integration of training activities which can be more cost effective
than running stand alone training activities. In India, the MOH adopted an integrated
approach to train 200,000 health workers on emergency contraception pills (ECPs) to lower
the cost. ECP training was integrated into the Reproductive and Child Health training
program under which paramedics undergo three days of training. All paramedics were then
reoriented in the new service, through a two-hour session on ECPs. ECPs have now been
included in the MOH Contraceptive Technology Update (CTU) manual (Hossain 2009).
Curriculum review and development
There are a number of documents that outline changes that have been made or need to be
made to HRH curriculum for cadres working at community level in MNRH. These revisions
and additions are necessary in order to ensure that the courses are responsive to community
needs and are technically current. Learner needs analysis and curriculum reviews necessary
part of on-going improvement of education and training and health worker performance.
Specific priority areas have been identified at the community level including: training in
recognition of complications among women, families, and TBAs to promote timely referrals
(Sibley and Armbruster 1997) and training for integrating HIV prevention and care into
maternal and child health care settings(Rutenberg 2002). Others have highlighted
communication training (QAP 2000), advocacy and negotiation (FIGO 2009), management
(Howard 2002) and the need for business skills for private midwifes (Segall 2006). The ICM
has defined core competencies that are of value to those developing pre-service and
continuing education for community healthy personnel however the competencies required
depend on models of care that is adopted (Koblinsky, Campbell et al. 1999).
There is little discussion in the literature regarding the competencies needed for international
health workers in MNRH at community level. An article on the competencies for Australian
health professionals working in international health (Akbar 2005) does not examine the
specific graduate requirements for work in this context but provides a list of 9 core
competencies derived from key informant interviews and an analysis of job descriptions.
The table below provides some examples of studies undertaken to establish the curriculum
required to prepare health workers to practice in MNRH at community level in LMICs.
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