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Pre-Service
Improving Pre-Service Medical Education
The performance of health systems depends on the knowledge, skills, motivation and deployment of the people responsible for organizing and delivering these services. To develop a well performing health workforce and meet the increasing need for quality services, it is essential to ensure strong pre-service education and in-service training systems. From our past collaboration with Tbilisi State Medical University through the HWG and Europe and Eurasia Regional Family Planning Activity (Regional Activity) projects on introducing evidence-based obstetric and neonatal care modules into pre-service training, we have deep understanding of improvements needed in the medical education system and for institutionalizing FP/MCH in medical, nursing and pharmacy school curricula. We are planning to work with pharmacy schools to incorporate FP into the pharmacists’ pre-service training and to continue strengthening pharmacists’ in-service training. JSI SUSTAIN project has a formal MoU with the Tbilisi State Medical University (TSMU) that outlines current partnership and work on improving FP/MCH undergraduate medical education. Sustain, in partnership with Harvard, will continue to work with TSMU to educate and train faculty and academic leaders, and design and implement innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
We are addressing the needs in medical, nursing and pharmacist education via three pronged strategy:
Develop faculty skills in teaching. Through the trainings we are enhancing faculty understanding of key principles of teaching—forming learning objectives, selecting best suited teaching methodologies, and developing curricula. As a result TSMU will expand pre-service training activity by adapting integrated, problem-based learning, case-study and other teaching methodologies including evaluation techniques and bedside instructions to create an active learning experience for medical students.
Sharpen faculty understanding, use, and teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in FP/MCH. Few faculties have training on EBM. JSI sees creating a culture of EBM within departments as an essential component of developing local capacity within the medical institutions themselves to update their curricula on a regular basis, contribute to developing clinical practice guidelines, and teach future medical professionals how to use EBM to guide their future clinical practice.
Create strong linkages between pre-service content and post-graduate and in-service content. It is vital for the same information to be taught throughout the spectrum of a provider’s career— from theory in the undergraduate years, to clinical practice during internship and residency, to Continuing Medical Education (CME) that takes place over the course of one’s career. Sustain will work to ensure that preceptors and clinical practice reinforce what is taught during the undergraduate years, and that the in-service and CME updates and trainings all incorporate the latest evidence and findings in FP, PAC, MCH and other reproductive health issues and are in compliance with National Clinical Guidelines. |
