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Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia
BACKGROUND: There is a severe healthcare workforce shortage in sub Saharan Africa, which threatens achieving the Millennium Development Goals and attaining an AIDS-free generation. The strength of a healthcare system depends on the skills, competencies, values and availability of its workforce. A we...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3815253/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24164781 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-56 |
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author | Fonjungo, Peter N Kebede, Yenew Arneson, Wendy Tefera, Derese Yimer, Kedir Kinde, Samuel Alem, Meseret Cheneke, Waqtola Mitiku, Habtamu Tadesse, Endale Tsegaye, Aster Kenyon, Thomas |
author_facet | Fonjungo, Peter N Kebede, Yenew Arneson, Wendy Tefera, Derese Yimer, Kedir Kinde, Samuel Alem, Meseret Cheneke, Waqtola Mitiku, Habtamu Tadesse, Endale Tsegaye, Aster Kenyon, Thomas |
author_sort | Fonjungo, Peter N |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: There is a severe healthcare workforce shortage in sub Saharan Africa, which threatens achieving the Millennium Development Goals and attaining an AIDS-free generation. The strength of a healthcare system depends on the skills, competencies, values and availability of its workforce. A well-trained and competent laboratory technologist ensures accurate and reliable results for use in prevention, diagnosis, care and treatment of diseases. METHODS: An assessment of existing preservice education of five medical laboratory schools, followed by remedial intervention and monitoring was conducted. The remedial interventions included 1) standardizing curriculum and implementation; 2) training faculty staff on pedagogical methods and quality management systems; 3) providing teaching materials; and 4) procuring equipment for teaching laboratories to provide practical skills to complement didactic education. RESULTS: A total of 2,230 undergraduate students from the five universities benefitted from the standardized curriculum. University of Gondar accounted for 252 of 2,230 (11.3%) of the students, Addis Ababa University for 663 (29.7%), Jimma University for 649 (29.1%), Haramaya University for 429 (19.2%) and Hawassa University for 237 (10.6%) of the students. Together the universities graduated 388 and 312 laboratory technologists in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 academic year, respectively. Practical hands-on training and experience with well-equipped laboratories enhanced and ensured skilled, confident and competent laboratory technologists upon graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Strengthening preservice laboratory education is feasible in resource-limited settings, and emphasizing its merits (ample local capacity, country ownership and sustainability) provides a valuable source of competent laboratory technologists to relieve an overstretched healthcare system. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3815253 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38152532013-11-03 Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia Fonjungo, Peter N Kebede, Yenew Arneson, Wendy Tefera, Derese Yimer, Kedir Kinde, Samuel Alem, Meseret Cheneke, Waqtola Mitiku, Habtamu Tadesse, Endale Tsegaye, Aster Kenyon, Thomas Hum Resour Health Research BACKGROUND: There is a severe healthcare workforce shortage in sub Saharan Africa, which threatens achieving the Millennium Development Goals and attaining an AIDS-free generation. The strength of a healthcare system depends on the skills, competencies, values and availability of its workforce. A well-trained and competent laboratory technologist ensures accurate and reliable results for use in prevention, diagnosis, care and treatment of diseases. METHODS: An assessment of existing preservice education of five medical laboratory schools, followed by remedial intervention and monitoring was conducted. The remedial interventions included 1) standardizing curriculum and implementation; 2) training faculty staff on pedagogical methods and quality management systems; 3) providing teaching materials; and 4) procuring equipment for teaching laboratories to provide practical skills to complement didactic education. RESULTS: A total of 2,230 undergraduate students from the five universities benefitted from the standardized curriculum. University of Gondar accounted for 252 of 2,230 (11.3%) of the students, Addis Ababa University for 663 (29.7%), Jimma University for 649 (29.1%), Haramaya University for 429 (19.2%) and Hawassa University for 237 (10.6%) of the students. Together the universities graduated 388 and 312 laboratory technologists in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 academic year, respectively. Practical hands-on training and experience with well-equipped laboratories enhanced and ensured skilled, confident and competent laboratory technologists upon graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Strengthening preservice laboratory education is feasible in resource-limited settings, and emphasizing its merits (ample local capacity, country ownership and sustainability) provides a valuable source of competent laboratory technologists to relieve an overstretched healthcare system. BioMed Central 2013-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC3815253/ /pubmed/24164781 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-56 Text en Copyright © 2013 Fonjungo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Fonjungo, Peter N Kebede, Yenew Arneson, Wendy Tefera, Derese Yimer, Kedir Kinde, Samuel Alem, Meseret Cheneke, Waqtola Mitiku, Habtamu Tadesse, Endale Tsegaye, Aster Kenyon, Thomas Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title | Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title_full | Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title_fullStr | Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title_full_unstemmed | Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title_short | Preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in Ethiopia |
title_sort | preservice laboratory education strengthening enhances sustainable laboratory workforce in ethiopia |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3815253/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24164781 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-56 |
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