Centre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Accra, Ghana.
Hum Resour Health. 2023 Mar 6;21(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s12960-023-00804-w.
COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for health systems worldwide. Since the confirmation of the first COVID-19 case in Ghana in March 2020 Ghanian health workers have reported fear, stress, and low perceived preparedness to respond to COVID-19, with those who had not received adequate training at highest risk. Accordingly, the Paediatric Nursing Education Partnership COVID-19 Response project designed, implemented, and evaluated four open-access continuing professional development courses related to the pandemic, delivered through a two-pronged approach: e-learning and in-person.
This manuscript presents an evaluation of the project's implementation and outcomes using data for a subset of Ghanaian health workers (n = 9966) who have taken the courses. Two questions were answered: first, the extent to which the design and implementation of this two-pronged strategy was successful and, second, outcomes associated with strengthening the capacity of health workers to respond to COVID-19. The methodology involved quantitative and qualitative survey data analysis and ongoing stakeholder consultation to interpret the results.
Judged against the success criteria (reach, relevance, and efficiency) the implementation of the strategy was successful. The e-learning component reached 9250 health workers in 6 months. The in-person component took considerably more resources than e-learning but provided hands-on learning to 716 health workers who were more likely to experience barriers to accessing e-learning due to challenges around internet connectivity, or institutional capacity to offer training. After taking the courses, health workers' capacities (addressing misinformation, supporting individuals experiencing effects of the virus, recommending the vaccine, course-specific knowledge, and comfort with e-learning) improved. The effect size, however, varied depending on the course and the variable measured. Overall, participants were satisfied with the courses and found them relevant to their well-being and profession. An area for improvement was refining the content-to-delivery time ratio of the in-person course. Unstable internet connectivity and the high upfront cost of data to access and complete the course online were identified as barriers to e-learning.
A two-pronged delivery approach leveraged distinct strengths of respective e-learning and in-person strategies to contribute to a successful continuing professional development initiative in the context of COVID-19.
COVID-19 给全球卫生系统带来了前所未有的挑战。自 2020 年 3 月加纳首例 COVID-19 病例确诊以来，加纳卫生工作者报告称，他们对 COVID-19 感到恐惧、压力和准备不足，而那些没有接受过充分培训的人面临的风险最高。因此，儿科护理教育伙伴关系 COVID-19 应对项目设计、实施和评估了与大流行相关的四门开放获取的继续教育课程，采用了双管齐下的方法：在线学习和面对面学习。
本文通过对参加过这些课程的加纳卫生工作者（n=9966）的部分数据，评估了该项目的实施和结果。回答了两个问题：首先，这种双管齐下策略的设计和实施在多大程度上取得了成功；其次，与加强卫生工作者应对 COVID-19 的能力相关的结果。该方法涉及定量和定性调查数据分析，并持续进行利益相关者协商以解释结果。
根据成功标准（覆盖面、相关性和效率）来判断，该策略的实施是成功的。在线学习部分在 6 个月内覆盖了 9250 名卫生工作者。面授部分比在线学习需要更多的资源，但为 716 名卫生工作者提供了实践学习的机会，他们由于互联网连接方面的挑战或机构提供培训的能力，更有可能无法接受在线学习。参加课程后，卫生工作者的能力（解决错误信息、支持受病毒影响的个人、推荐疫苗、课程特定知识和对在线学习的舒适度）有所提高。然而，效果大小取决于课程和所测量的变量。总体而言，参与者对课程感到满意，并认为它们与自己的健康和职业相关。需要改进的一个方面是完善面授课程的内容与交付时间的比例。不稳定的互联网连接和在线访问和完成课程所需的高初始数据成本被确定为在线学习的障碍。
双管齐下的交付方法利用了各自在线学习和面对面学习策略的优势，为 COVID-19 背景下成功的继续教育计划做出了贡献。
