Project to upgrade the Malawian Ministry of Health”s capacity to provide mid-level maternal child health (MCH) and other primary health care (PHC) workers, mainly by institutionalizing training programs for three categories of workers. The MOH will implement the project with assistance from Howard University. Improved training programs at the MOH”s Lilongwe School for Health Sciences (LSHS) will be developed for community health nurse-midwives (CHN”s), health assistants (HA”s), and medical assistants (MA”s). Priority will be given to training CHN”s – a new job title which will replace the existing title of enrolled nurse midwives (ENM”s). A 1-year CHN training program along with a new curriculum and training materials will be instituted at LSHS. Eventually, 30 CHN”s will graduate from LSHS yearly, and the program will be replicated in 12 other schools now training ENM”s. Further, all of the 800-some ENM”s currently working in MCH will be trained to expand their role to include child-spacing education and counseling. ENM training will be provided by project-trained tutors at 24 regional and district hospitals. Beginning in year 3, refresher training will be provided as well. HA/MA curricula at LSHS will be redesigned to include new public health courses, with a focus on preventive care, health promotion, and supervisory and training techniques. Eventually, 40 HA”s and 40 MA”s will graduate each year. Existing HA”s and MA”s will be retrained in public health and to supervise and provide training to community and/or traditional health workers. LSHS facilities will be upgraded, and equipment, commodities, and TA in developing curricula and teaching materials will be provided. Some LSHS tutors will receive long-term participant training while others will receive short-term third-country experiential training. All tutors will benefit from intensive on-the-job training. The project will also provide the MOH with short-term TA in health education and nutrition; one nutrition candidate will receive long-term participant training. In all, the project will provide 24 person-months of long-term TA, 48 of short-term TA, and 24 years of long-term participant training, some to the M.A. level.
