Health care worker training programmes: Sharing the Kenyan experience
Abstract
Despite what seems to be a significant
burden of rheumatic diseases in East
Africa, huge deficiencies in education and
training of health professionals exist. World
health organization recommends that there
should be at least one rheumatologist per
100,000 people. However in sub-Saharan
Africa(excluding south Africa), there are
less than 20 rheumatologists for over
8000 million people and only four for a
population of over 100 million in East
Africa.
Appropriate training of suitably
qualified staff could help rectify this.
Unfortunately, a lack of well -developed
curricula for teaching rheumatology in
East Africa has resulted in inadequate
teaching in medical schools.
Primary care physicians, internists
and middle-level care medical carers such
as nurses and clinical officers in Kenya
currently play a major role in managing
these patients .Despite inadequate training,
they have to recognize, diagnose and treat
patients with MSK conditions. With few
functioning rheumatology clinics, patient
management is haphazard and without
guidelines or adequate intervention
strategies.
Bridging the gap between patients
and rheumatologists can be achieved by
giving basic training to the nurses, clinical
officers and primary care physicians who
are often the first point of contact for
patients. this method is already being used
for managing diabetic patients in Kenya
and has been successful.
Citation
Oyoo, Omondi G (2015).Health care worker training programmes: Sharing the Kenyan experience .Afr J Rheumatol 2015; 3(2): 11Publisher
University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10378]