Health workers trained on maternal, new born care
Health workers in Kwara State were recently trained on obstetric and new born care towards tackling maternal and child mortality. The training was conducted by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine United Kingdom (LSTM) in collaboration with the Wellbeing Foundation Africa with the support of Johnson and Johnson. It was aimed at broadening the knowledge […]
Health workers in Kwara State were recently trained on obstetric and new born care towards tackling maternal and child mortality.
The training was conducted by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine United Kingdom (LSTM) in collaboration with the Wellbeing Foundation Africa with the support of Johnson and Johnson. It was aimed at broadening the knowledge of health workers in the care of mothers and newborns.
Speaking during the training in Share General Hospital, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Senior Technical Officer, LSTM Nigeria office, Dr Hauwa Muhammed, said the programme targeted 450 health workers in the state and it was expected to last till the year 2020.
“We started the training since 2015 and it will end by 2020. The training is targeted at doctors, nurses, community health workers, other health workers and midwives.
“We have so far trained 96 health workers in Ilorin east, west and south local governments in emergency obstetric and newborn care, 48 health workers in quality improvement for mothers and babies, 30 health workers in data management. We have replicated same in Offa, Irepodun, Edu, and Kaiama covering 193 health workers, 32 in QIT and 28 in data management.
“We will work in the remaining nine local government areas of Asa, Patigi, Ifelodun, Baruten, Isin, Oyun, Oke ero, Ekiti and Mooro. We have also reduced the stress on trainees by taking the training to various local governments,” Muhammed said.
She however lamented lack of adequate health workers in most of the local governments they visited, saying some local governments could not produce up to 50 health workers for the training. She said the local governments invited health workers from private hospitals around to make up the targeted number for all local governments.
One of the trainers who is a registrar at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Rahman Kayode, said the training would help bridge the gap between tertiary and primary health care sector.
“It helps in transfer of knowledge and skills on how to improve the care of babies and mothers to reduce mortality rate,” Kayode said.
One of the beneficiaries, Folake Alakija who is a principal nursing superintendent, said the training has changed her orientation about care of patients and deepened her understanding about the care of pregnant women.