Filling the Gap for Healthcare Professionals Leadership Training in Africa: The Afya Bora Consortium Fellowship
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Date
2017-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Annals of Global Health
Abstract
Program/Project Purpose:
The Afya Bora Consortium is a partnership of five African and four U.S. universities with the mission of providing future global health leaders with advanced skills that are beyond the traditional patient-centered training programs for healthcare professionals. Each year, an interdisciplinary group of twenty physicians, nurses and public health professionals participate in a 12-month African-based intensive fellowship to improve skills in leadership, resource management, program monitoring and evaluation, implementation, and applied research.
Structure/Method/Design:
The Afya Bora Fellowship provides leadership training in the form of eight in-person and four online modules as well as two 4.5-month mentored attachments at governmental and non-governmental organizations in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The fellows come together during three, month-long highly interactive sessions held in different African countries during which interdisciplinary and multinational learning is encouraged. Afya Bora Fellows complete evaluations of the modules and program as well as self assessments of learning throughout the year. Data presented here are from all cohorts since 2011 using qualitative analysis of personal reflection reports.
Outcome & Evaluation:
Fellows described multiple training gaps the fellowship helped fill. Fellows reported that increased skills in communication would help them to better motivate and align others to address pressing problems in their healthcare systems. Improved
understanding of and capacity to use data for programmatic purposes was also identified as essential to their ongoing leadership. Fellows reported that their organizational and management abilities had improved both from didactic learning and modeling of program faculty and staff. Finally, fellows reported that the rich cohort experience provided them with an added appreciation of the advantages of interdisciplinarity when solving problems.
Going Forward: Well-structured and targeted leadership training is necessary to fill the gaps in traditional medical and nursing education programs. Such training can catalyze healthcare professionals to become more effective in leadership and improve the healthcare systems in their countries while not contributing to “brain drain” (all fellows thus far have remained in their respective countries). The Afya Bora Fellowship can serve as a model for training and research institutions as well as organizations in resource-limited settings to sustainably strengthen human resource capacity to lead and improve health systems.
Description
Keywords
Healthcare Professionals, Leadership Training, Africa
Citation
Krakowiak, D., Mashalla, Y., O'Malley, G., Seloilwe, E., Ekane, G., Atanga, S., Gachuno, O., Odero, T.M., Urassa, D., Tarimo, E. and Nakanjako, D., 2017. Filling the Gap for Healthcare Professionals Leadership Training in Africa: The Afya Bora Consortium Fellowship. Annals of Global Health, 83(1).