The Knowledge library

Technical Reports

Assessment of Preservice Education eLearning Courses Using the QStream Platform

This report assesses two eLearning courses developed by CapacityPlus that are offered through QStream, a learning platform that uses a spaced, repeated question-and-answer format that has been shown to improve the retention of knowledge over time. The Private Sector Participation in Preservice Health Education course provides an overview of factors bearing on the success of private sector involvement in educating health workers. It explores the similarities between public and private institutions; challenges for private schools; and business models in use by private preservice education institutions. It was developed for learners who are engaged in leading private preservice education institutions in low- and middle-income countries. 
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The People That Deliver Initiative: Namibia’s Integrated Actions to Improve the Health Supply Chain Management Workforce

In November 2013, Namibia's Minister of Health presented a formal request to the People that Deliver (PtD) Board and member institutions for technical support to develop a sustainable strategy to improve access to health commodities. Led by the government of Namibia and supported by expertise from the People that Deliver Initiative and its members, notably the USAID- and PEPFAR-funded Supply Chain Management System project and CapacityPlus, the PtD-Namibia collaboration sought to understand and improve Namibia’s public sector health supply chain management workforce, focusing on the Ministry of Health and Social Services' immediate priority: staff at the central medical store and regional medical depots. This synthesis report documents the PtD-Namibia collaboration’s findings and outcomes in five priority activity areas as well as its collective results, all of which have great potential to have a positive impact on the country’s supply chain management workforce development and planning.

Integrating the PEPFAR Technical Considerations into Health Services to Improve the Clinical Management of Children and Adolescents Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence in Kenya:Final Report

USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS Gender Technical Working Group invited CapacityPlus to apply its expertise in health worker training and performance support to improve health system response to children and adolescents who have experienced sexual violence in Kenya. In collaboration with USAID’s FUNZOKenya health worker training project and its APHIAplus Kamili service delivery project, CapacityPlus supported the Ministry of Health’s Reproductive and Maternal Health Services Unit in revising the national sexual and gender-based violence curriculum to reflect recent changes in national policy guidelines. This final report documents achievements and lessons learned from the activity and includes the findings from a desk review and training needs assessment that informed the development of the new training module and supplemental training and performance support materials.

Peer Review of the Community-Based Medical Education Program at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences

In collaboration with the PEPFAR Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Community-Based Education (CBE) Technical Working Group and the MEPI Coordinating Center, CapacityPlus organized and conducted a peer review of the CBE program of the University of Zimbabwe College of Heath Sciences (UZCHS). The review was based on a validated methodology developed by the Collaboration for Health Equity through Education and Research (CHEER), which was formed in 2003 in South Africa to examine strategies that would increase the production of health professional graduates who choose to practice in rural and underserved areas of South Africa. The review served two purposes: 1) to provide a practical training experience in the CHEER peer review process for representatives from four MEPI-supported schools; and 2) to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the UZCHS field attachment program with respect to how well students are being prepared to serve in rural and underserved areas in Zimbabwe.

Christian Health Association of Malawi: General Report of the Health Workforce Productivity Assessment and Early Progress on Implementation of Improvement Interventions

Health workforce productivity measures the number of health services produced by health workers in a given period of time. Assessing health workforce productivity at the health facility level is a key step for developing and implementing effective improvement strategies. The Christian Health Association of Malawi, in collaboration with CapacityPlus, conducted a productivity assessment through a field test of CapacityPlus's Health Workforce Productivity Analysis and Improvement Toolkit. This report presents findings from the assessment as well as early progress from implementation of the improvement interventions through June 2015.

Strengthening the Supply Chain Management Workforce in Namibia: Results of a Rapid Retention Survey for Pharmacists and Pharmacist Assistants

People that Deliver is a global initiative that aims to build global and national capacity to plan, finance, develop, support, and retain the national workforces needed for the effective, efficient, and sustainable management of health supply chains. The Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia requested People that Deliver to support the country in applying a set of targeted interventions to strengthen the supply chain management workforce. One of the interventions was a rapid retention survey to understand incentives and retention schemes needed to attract and retain pharmacists and pharmacist assistants to underserved public sector facilities across Namibia.CapacityPlus applied its Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit to determine the benefits and incentives most likely to attract and retain pharmacists and pharmacist assistants to rural, public sector services in Namibia. The findings are presented in this report.

Ramping Up Public Health Supply Chain Workforce Management Skills: Lessons Learned in Latin America and the Caribbean

In response to the evident need for building up the supply chain management workforce, the USAID Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean provided financial support to CapacityPlus to enhance capacities in Central American countries. The project coordinated a regional HIV/AIDS Commodity Security Workshop to share and apply lessons learned from USAID’s ten-year Latin American contraceptive security work and from specific health workforce and supply chain work already done in the region. Additionally, workshops focusing on supply chain workforce motivation and quality of services were held in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. Building on the action plans developed at its workshop, El Salvador sought to delve more deeply into ways to systematically improve the quality of services through supportive supervision. This technical report reviews the actions taken and lessons learned in strengthening and professionalizing the supply chain workforce.

Strengthening the Supply Chain Management Workforce in Namibia: Applying the WISN Method to Estimate Staffing Needs

People that Deliver is a global initiative that aims to address human resources inefficiencies in the public health supply chain. With the challenges faced in Namibia, the Ministry of Health and Social Services requested that People that Deliver pilot, with support from CapacityPlus, an integrated set of interventions to strengthen the supply chain management workforce. One of these interventions was to estimate the types and numbers of supply chain workers needed at central and regional medical stores based on the estimated workload. The World Health Organization’s Workload Indicators of Staffing Needs (WISN) tool was used to estimate the required number of pharmacists, pharmacist assistants, and clerks required at the national and regional levels of the supply chain. The findings, which indicated shortages in all three cadres of supply chain personnel, are presented in this report.