In the past year, I-TECH has worked closely with the Government of Tanzania to conduct a series of assessments on health care worker training institutions in the country. The work has included in-person visits and interviews, meetings, and the publication of a series of reports.
Now, the I-TECH team is pleased to announce the publication of the third and last report, A Situational Analysis of Government Nursing Schools in Tanzania. It completes an ambitious and successful scope of work.
Together, the reports provide an overview of existing training resources for several of the most critical cadres of health care workers in the country. In addition to the recently published nursing schools assessment, reports have examined government clinical officer and clinical assistant training institutions and potential and existing laboratory training centers.
Like many resource-limited settings, Tanzania has an acute shortage of skilled health care workers. Recognizing this need, the government has made it a priority to scale up the training and enrollment of key cadres (such efforts are often called “human resources for health”). To better target these efforts, leaders requested assessments to provide a clear picture of current challenges and resources. I-TECH has worked closely with Tanzanian institutions and partners to conduct these assessments, which included site visits, in-person interviews, focus groups, and quantitative data collection. The baseline data that has emerged from this work provides information on existing infrastructure; the needs of students, tutors and faculty; available resources; and other situational issues. Reports also include targeted recommendations from the assessment team about how each institution can meet the goal of training a greater number of professionals.
Together, these reports can provide Tanzanian leaders with a strong basis of knowledge as they work toward training a new generation of skilled, confident, health care workers.
