Despite being nestled amid lush greenery that slowly inches its way closer…to the house, the walking path, the garbage burn pit…my job is actually encased in cement. Cement walls and floors and an imposing enclosure engulfing it all; a dingy wall – with once-bright pictures depicting safer sex and mosquito nets to prevent malaria. It is the Ministry of Health.
I’ve actually only been once. Although my work is with them I seldom interact with the ministry, and when I do – to date – it has not been in that building
My work so far is a kind of no woman’s land so far. The job description described my role as a monitoring and evaluating coordinator for a national training for clinicians. hundreds of them, with varying degrees of medical knowledge and skill because during the war – the crisis – it was hard to study, hard to keep track, but the need for clinician s never slacked.
Unable to recall everyone, to test and certify those already practicing, the Ministry -instead- pulled together the basic package of knowledge that is essential for everyone to know. From rural clinic to referral hospital, from trained midwife to doctor.
The process is taking longer than expected, however, and the training modules are still being approved. The volunteer before me undertook that job with a focus and dedication that I marvel at. In the absence of trainings to monitor right now, BushDiva and I are attempting to help plan the national trainings rollout with an eye to the future for the monitoring and evaluation that will follow them.
That roll out planning involves thinking about every aspect of the training, from resources to transportation, gas to projectors, distance in terms of time and time in terms of absence from work. After all…how can you train ALL clinicians in the country? How do you pull out the only two medical professionals from a rural clinic…leaving no one to treat patients for two weeks?
It has to be done.
There are no easy solutions. Simply the long term need for training weighed against the immediate need for care. Today’s sacrifice for tomorrow’s good.
As it stands, the training should probably be a month. But time and budget prevent that from being a reality. Instead, we are planning for two solid weeks. Trainings staggered in five regional sites all over the country over the next year and a half.
So we are creating checklists and agendas, FAQs and pre/post tests…and to insure the trainings are successful, we are creating evaluation questions and indicators that will assess what is learned and how it was taught.
One thousand five hundred and six clinicians will be trained. The entire medical force of the country…the next four months should be interesting.
When I first became a Child Support manager, in Houston, the office I took over was in bad shape. Lets just say collections was abysmal. When I asked the staff about not just goals for the office but for themselves as well,… they had none. With 10 of millions of $$ needing collecting, it seamed like a daunting task… & to a large degree it was; however, I learned that one step at a time will take you to your destination. When I left the OAG, my office wasn’t the top office, but it was up there with them.
I said all that to say this, you are doing it the right way. Giving it your all, ONE STEP AT A TIME. Have faith & keep on working it & it will get done.
Dad