​Training and certification completed in Wakiso District

Nurses dedication knew no end when practicing to pass the MyChild Certified user’s test in Wakiso District. By the end of the day, or rather midnight, all 62 nurses had passed the certification, making the district ready for implementation of MyChild System.

Shifo is working closely with the Wakiso District Health Team to improve child health services in the district. With support from the Swedish Postcode Lottery and individual donors, MyChild System is being implemented at 32 health centres in the district. Nurses, managers and district leadership are all key to improving child health service delivery. Workshops and training sessions have been conducted to support all three groups.

The training was kicked off by district leadership orientation workshop and followed by training of health centre managers to ensure that nurses are supported during the implementation period and that continuous quality improvement can be emphasised and acted upon across the healthcare chain.

Nurses received a three-day training course where the main objective was to empower them to reach every child with preventive healthcare using efficient tools and processes. The training began with basic computer literacy and proceeded with introduction to MyChild System and typing training. Most nurses have never used a computer before and Shifo has learnt from experience in the Mukono district that typing is one of the biggest challenges for new users. A typing game has therefore been made available to all nurses so that they can practice to improve their typing skills. The game was tested during the training and all nurses improved fast and some sped up their typing substantially after only a 30 minutes training session.

Together with trainers, nurses also explored the benefits of the system in managing children who drop-out from routine vaccination plan and the Every Child Counts Report. The report is automatically generated by MyChild system and contains information to enable stakeholders across the healthcare chain to quickly learn the progress/gaps in health service delivery, develop, implement and monitor interventions to close the real gaps in order to reach every child with preventive health services.

The District Health Officer Dr. Emmanuel Mukisa is very excited by the benefits of MyChild System and personally closed the workshop on the third day. He points out the importance of timely and reliable data and the opportunity that the new tools will bring in terms of reaching every child. He believes that the implementation in public health centres will also encourage private health centres to use MyChild System and that the goal should be to cover all health centres in the district.

Besides child immunisation, Tetanus vaccine for pregnant women and women of child-bearing age is provided at many child health clinics in the district. Neonatal tetanus is almost always fatal in the absence of medical care, but these deaths can be prevented with changes in traditional obstetrical practices and maternal immunisation. Therefore, MyChild System has been further developed to support maternal immunisation of tetanus. Nurses were quick to pick up on the new features and did not require any additional training to use MyChild System for delivery of maternal tetanus.

At the end of the training sessions nurses took the exam to become MyChild System Certified users. All nurses worked hard and most passed at the first attempt. One of the most dedicated nurse stayed until midnight to train and retake the exam to ensure that she was prepared to lead the work of integrating the use of MyChild System in the clinic where she works.“We are amased at the dedication and speed at which the nurses learn the new tools. We have to remember that most of them have never used a computer before” says Shahnoza Eshonkhojaeva from Shifo implementation team.

Shortly after the training nurses will begin working with MyChild System and Shifo will work closely with the district leaderships and nurses to provide timely support and continuous capacity building.