Training key to improving health services

Trends are changing fast in the labour industry and more than before, the need to improve skills is growing for many professionals. Many people are not able to afford fees to go back to school so they rely more on capacity building offered through their organisations.

This is more so pronounced in the health sector where there is little support in terms of equipping workers with extra skills that would make their work easier and more effective. The World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of capacity-building as the development and strengthening of human and institutional resources aptly captures the concept.

Capacity is the ability to perform functions, solve problems and achieve objectives at three levels — individual, institutional and societal.

Every year, both private and public universities in Kenya release approximately 50,000 graduates into the market. Usually, these graduates have gone through theory. What employers and other stakeholders ought to remember is that basic education gives individuals a platform on which they can develop their potential and lay the foundation for employability. This basic education provides essential work skills, general knowledge and industry-based and professional know-how that enable one to transition into the world of work. However, employment to them provides a different ball game all together.

The quest for an improved health workforce dates back as far as 2006 when the World Health Report, “Working Together for Health,” identified forces that drive health workforce. It singled out health needs, health systems and contextual factors. The report indicated that a well-performing workforce is considered to be a combination of staff availability and competence.

Further, it proposed the adoption of good human resource management within health services. For healthcare workers who have been trained, gone through internship and posted to various workstations, capacity building becomes an important aspect for improving skills or gaining new knowledge.

This is necessitated by constant change in the sector, especially among technical workers and those managing health facilities. Healthcare workers such as doctors, clinical officers, nurses and pharmacists have little training in managing health facilities and managing people. In order to perform these duties effectively, they need a set of skills such as people management, financial management, supervision and delegation. The best way to train people is by creating an environment that is enabling so that information can be shared and exchanged freely.

Mission for Essential Drugs & Supplies (MEDS) experience in capacity building and training for health workers offers strong lesson for government in strengthening the healthcare human resource.

Furnishing workers with the much-needed skills for the roles they undertake is becoming a strategic concern in the national growth and development outlook for developed countries.

Globalisation of the market is fast-tracking the flow of technology and speed of innovation. Already, leaders of G20 countries have pledged to support vigorous training strategies to tackle the challenge of strong, sustainable and balanced growth in each of their countries and universally too.