Page 96 - GHES-2-4

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Building sustainable local training capacity

for maternal and newborn health within the
public health system: A training intervention

in Palghar District, India

1
Shilpa Karvande 1 , Vidula Purohit , Subha Sri Balakrishnan , Helen Allott ,
3
2
5
Elisabeth Serle , Reeta Jha , Shubhro Mullick , Milind Chavan ,
4
6
7
Prashant Kulkarni , Matthews Mathai , and Nerges Mistry *
1
8
1
1 Department of Community Health, Foundation for Medical Research, Pune/Mumbai, India

2 Independent researcher, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
3 Department of Maternal and Newborn Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool,
United Kingdom
4 Department of Women’s and Child Health, Shetland NHS Health Board, Shetland, Scotland
Abstract
Continuing professional development for the health workforce is of paramount
importance and can be implemented using locally available, competent trainers.
Academic editor: However, guidelines for the selection, development, and mentorship of such trainers
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE are lacking. Training intervention research conducted in Western Maharashtra,
India, aimed to address these gaps by focusing on skills for maternal and newborn
*Corresponding author:
Nerges Mistry health (MNH). In this study, selected trainers from a pilot project in the Pune district
(fmr@fmrindia.org) received advanced training to become core trainers (CTs) for a scale-up project in
Citation: Karvande, S., Purohit, V., Palghar district (2019 – 2022). The CTs trained master trainers (MTs) in Palghar (n = 32)
Sri Balakrishnan, S., et al. (2024). with support from the United Kingdom-based technical partners, following a six-
Building sustainable local training step approach: selection of trainers, training of trainers (ToT) (including knowledge
capacity for maternal and newborn
health within the public health and skills assessment), staggered induction as trainers, continuous support, regular
system: A training intervention quality assessment, and virtual refresher training. The process and outcomes of this
in Palghar District, India. Global six-step approach were evaluated using mixed-methods research. The skills of local
Health Econ Sustain, 2(4):2963. trainers were augmented through hands-on training and further supported by long-
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2963
term mentorship to develop training excellence. The CTs’ competency as mentors
Received: February 18, 2024 improved due to appreciative feedback. Regular assessments conducted by the expert
Accepted: May 9, 2024 team also contributed to maintaining quality control. Online learning has emerged
as an effective method for refresher training. There was considerable improvement in
Published Online: August 27, 2024
the clinical knowledge and skills of the health providers from Palghar (n = 505), which
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). attests to the quality of the training delivered by the Palghar MTs. This intervention
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the enhanced both clinical competency and confidence. The approach demonstrated
Creative Commons Attribution the importance of recruiting suitable participants who could consciously shift their
License, permitting distribution, teaching style to become more adult-learner-centric facilitators. However, there is
and reproduction in any medium, a need for a systematic, long-term evaluation of this model, its application to MNH
provided the original work is
properly cited. care, and its institutionalization within the public health system.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Keywords: Sustainable trainers; Adult-learner-centric; Training of trainers approach;
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Raining process
affiliations.

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2963