Acquiring program development skills through hands-on training
The lack of basic management skills among public health workers is an important barrier to providing quality health services. To address this need for management skills, SAFETYNET conducted a six-month in-service applied management training course in 2015.
Indonesian graduates of the course from Ciloto Health Training Center, in collaboration with the Indonesian Epidemiology Association and SAFETYNET, then designed a similar course for Indonesian health staff. In 2016, 20 staff completed the course.
A second cohort composed of 20 staff from North Sumatra, Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and East Java began their training in March 2017. Most of the particiants are FETP graduates who are expected to be trainors and field supervisors for future cohorts.
The objective of this six-month in-service applied management training is for health staff to learn practical management skills and apply them in their work sites in order to continuously improve the quality of services in their respective agencies. As part of the course, participants implement two applied learning projects. After attending a didactic workshop, participants start implementing a quality improvement project (QIP) in their work sites utilizing the seven-step process taught in the course. Examples of projects include improving surveillance systems and increasing voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV among female sex workers.
During a second workshop to be held in June, participants will present progress reports on their respective projects and learn about Health Analysis for Planning Prevention Services or HAPPS, an evidence-based decision making tool created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for developing health intervention programs.
Participants will then develop their own health program plans using the HAPPS tool. At the final workshop session in September, these participants shall present the results of their QIP and health program plans.
Course participants work in teams to implement their projects. Each team implements a quality improvement project and develops a health program plan for a priority disease in their area. Field advisors (Indonesian graduates of previous applied management training courses) are assigned to each team to help them in designing and implementing their respective projects.