Lilongwe, june 21, 2019: The Bill and Melinda Gates (BMGF) funded project called Kuunika, has embarked on effective data management and use curriculum trainings to address gaps in competency of health workers in the country.
The training is expected to increase the competency of health workers to manage data using available technology or tools and use data for evidence-based decision making.
Speaking in Mponela on Wednesday, Public Health Specialist for Kuunika, Martha Saidi said the project conducted a research in 2017 to assess the knowledge and skill of that identified the gaps.
She said the research showed that the health workers do not have enough knowledge on data management.
“We sampled a number of health care workers with different levels of managerial responsibility and also those that are supporting the patients like the clinical team. The assessment was competence based. They were given questions to analyze the data.”
“We assessed their knowledge and skills in terms of health information system. We discovered they do not have knowledge on data quality and do not know the information they need and to use for decision making,” said Saidi.
She said based on that knowledge they developed a training curriculum and manual that are being used to train the health workers on the skill that they need to ensure that data collected in the health facilities is of good quality and use it for patient care, resource allocation and other areas.
Saidi said since their role is to support the health system and improve the quality of data and use it for decision making, the project is focusing on data access, release and data use.
“We have a number of capabilities that we need to unlock in the health system. For now we are focusing on four capabilities so we need to enable the system to be able to divide data to inform planning, management and impact assessment,” she said.
She added that the systems being taught will enable the system to generate accurate unique patient counts and measure patient morbidity and mortality.
Saidi said the project is developing a number of technology products to help the health workers have data every time since it will be available in their phones.
“We are doing something that is very unique in the health system that will enable connection of all existing sub systems in the ministry of health to connect to one mother system so that data from different sub systems is available to one bigger system,” she added.
The participants have been drawn from 180 health workers from Lilongwe District.
One of the participants at the training, Albert Kalilani from Nambuma Health Center said the gap in data management is too huge and the training has been an eye opener.
He said the reporting system in the health facilities has been slow and of poor quality most times because the work was too much.
“I am working as a clerk and I do organize reports at the facility for almost all departments. The job is too demanding because it is manual and the content of data is managed by me and compiling them now and again hasn’t been easy,” said Kalilani.
He said the technology will ease the job adding that it will enable them to have fixed and well organized data.
Another participant, Medical Technician at Dzenza Health Center, Annie Chinoko said the system will help them to submit complete reports and data management.
Chinoko said the Kuunika project will help the health facilities to have quality data and help in decision making.
“Most of the people who handle data have never undergone any training affecting quality of data which also affected the decision makings.”
“Stakeholders used the same data that had gaps and wasn’t reflecting what was on the ground at the facility and put patients at risk or not getting the attention needed.
According to Saidi, the curriculum is designed to be completed in a 7 day workshop training period covering 8 modules. She said is practical so that participants can effectively master it.
Kuunika, Data for Action is a 4 year project funded by BMGF and implemented through the government of Malawi and partners.
Its purpose is to achieve the Ministry of Health’s vision of reducing incidences and disease burden through improved quality and efficiency of HIV national response programme.