Training Frontline Health Care Workers
As the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Sierra Leone, ICAP’s experience in health care worker training, mentoring and supportive supervision proved to be a critical asset. Before the coronavirus crisis emerged, a group of 24 health workers had just completed ICAP’s six-month advanced certification program in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). Celebrating their accomplishment at the February graduation ceremony in Freetown, Dr. Thomas Samba, the country’s chief medical officer, presciently said, “The newly evolving landscape of infectious diseases across the world is a stronger justification for developing a pool of IPC experts in all countries, especially in developing countries such as Sierra Leone.”
In 2014, Western Africa had faced the largest health emergency in its history with the rapid community spread of Ebola, a deadly disease. During the epidemic, Sierra Leonean health workers were 21-32 times more likely to be develop Ebola Virus Disease compared to the rest of the population, and it is estimated that one in five members of the health workforce died from this disease. A lack of IPC resources and critical knowledge—including how to use personal protective equipment and practice of other measures—had been recognized as a driving force for the rapid spread of Ebola among health workers.
Now, six years after the Ebola outbreak, ICAP continues to spearhead a series of projects to strengthen the national health system’s IPC practices to detect, prevent, and respond to the country’s recurring natural disasters and public health emergencies. Under Sierra Leone’s government’s leadership, ICAP’s health care worker quality improvement evidence-based training initiative, designed to establish a cadre of IPC specialists across the country, has significantly increased the health system resiliency and responsiveness to new health threats. The first cohort’s graduation came just in time for their deployment into leadership positions for the COVID-19 IPC preparedness and response activities throughout the country.
From live distance learning to tele-mentoring and WhatsApp™ support groups, ICAP has been pioneering virtual training, supervision, and support of health care workers in resource-limited settings.
Miriam Rabkin, MD, MPH,
ICAP Director for Health Systems Strategies
Mame Toure, MD, MsC, the country director of ICAP in Sierra Leone, said, “These trainings, which engaged hundreds of health care workers at our high-volume health facilities, have been critical to protecting our precious health workforce and their patients from COVID-19.”
Funding: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Nurses and midwives are the main providers of health care in the countries where ICAP works. In ordinary times, they provide upwards of 90 percent of health services, frequently serving as the primary touchpoint between patients and the health care system.
In 2020, ICAP joined the global celebration of the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of Florence Nightingale at a time when the importance of nurses has never been clearer.