Participants from the 9th Principles of Tuberculosis Care and Prevention: Translating Knowledge to Action training engage health care providers of GK Nkubu dispensary, Meru County in a data driven discussion on June 10, 2019. The training is being conducted by Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya, USAID–Kenya funded Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care II (TB ARC II) activity in collaboration with the National TB Program and The UNION.
Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya, USAID–Kenya funded Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care II (TB ARC II) activity in collaboration with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The UNION) and the National Tuberculosis Leprosy and Lung Disease Program (NTLD-P) is currently conducting the 9th Principles of TB Care and Prevention: Translating Knowledge to Action training for County and Sub County TB coordinators drawn from Busia, Marsabit, Uasin Gishu, and Muranga counties.
The training that began on Sunday June 9, 2019, is expected to end on Saturday June 15, 2019 at Three Steers Hotel, Meru County.
In a departure from the usual, this training is based on the method of TB Data for Action coupled with data-driven supervision techniques. The training is aimed at capacity building the participants to understand the bacteriological and epidemiological basis for the principles of effective TB patient care and programme management.
It also aims at empowering them with skills for monitoring and evaluation of TB program activities at different levels and providing support and supervision to health providers.
“This training promotes data driven supervision techniques which recognises use of local data to inform solutions. The slogan “show me data” has been adopted by the participants to emphasise use of local data in appreciating and quantifying strengths and to inform smart action points,” says Patrick Angala, TB ARC II Activity, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager.
TB Data for Action uses routinely available data (in facility registers including TB registers and TIBU) to look for missing cases within the health care system and at the leakages in the care cascade. Using this analysis (comparing facility to sub-county, sub-county to county, county to national), County and Sub County Coordinators learn to discuss the local data with facility staff and arrive at locally derived solutions to improve care.
“TBData4Action is a major focus of the UNION – CHS Training. This method of utilising locally derived data during support supervision revolutionises finding the missing cases already accessing health services as well as identifying (and plugging) the quality gaps in care. Use of TBData4Action is accelerating Kenya to its elimination goals,” notes Dr. E. Jane Carter, the immediate past President of The Union and the lead trainer in this.
Amukanga Witundu, a participant from Teso North, Busia County shares that, “This training will go a long way in improving the quality of my supportive and facilitative supervision of health care workers. It has added knowledge and skills for me to use in mentorship and on job training. It is a timely training and very interactive in nature.”
Participants will end the week with development of action plans for the counties using knowledge and skills acquired.
The training will be followed by the development of a Data for Action Extension of Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) to ensure post-training follow up and support ongoing adoption of the method going forward. The pilot ECHO is planned to start next month with hopes of rolling it out widely by the end of the year.
