Midwifery education making great strides in Afghanistan
Health care services for Afghan women improve thanks to Johns Hopkins collaboration
21 June 2006
Jhpiego, an international health affiliate of The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), is
spearheading efforts to improve the curriculum for midwifery education in Afghanistan.
During the last three years, Jhpiego, in collaboration with the Afghan Institute
of Health Sciences, which is part of the Ministry of Public Health, has been committed to the
reconstruction of midwifery education in Afghanistan. A key tool to accomplish this endeavor was
the development of two new training programs to provide professional education to midwives and
community midwives. The term midwife refers to those who practice at district, provincial and
regional hospitals, and the term community midwife refers to those who practice in health centers
with outreach to the community, including homebirths. The new competency-based curriculum focuses
on the development of critical clinical skills needed for basic maternal and newborn care, as well
as for the management of complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
"After two years of using the curriculum in midwifery schools across Afghanistan,
we recognized that the students would benefit from basic science and math and pre-clinical science
knowledge that many of them lack due to the restrictions on education during the political unrest.
For example, we needed to take key skills in math, like fractions, measurement or percentages,
and teach how that information relates to the clinical care setting of administering medicine
or understanding blood pressure," explains Sheena Currie, Jhpiego’s Midwifery Advisor based
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Jhpiego enlisted the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to assist in the creation
of visual teaching tools and learning activities in general science and math, anatomy and physiology,
microbiology and pharmacology, to create a more comprehensive education program. The updated
curriculum will be translated into Dari and be used in more than 20 midwifery schools.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is encouraged among the various Johns Hopkins
schools and affiliates. "It is crucial that we take full advantage of the multi-disciplinary
expertise available to us in order to create the best possible programs and products that are
saving lives beyond our borders. It was a fantastic collaborative experience," comments Dr.
Nancy Woods, Assistant Professor at JHU SON.
For years, Afghanistan has suffered from and the highest infant and child
mortality rate and the second highest maternal mortality ratio in the world. Now, a new generation
of midwives, the first ever to undergo a professional two-year training program, is entering
the Afghan work force. Already, 805 new midwives have been trained—a 172 percent increase
from the 467 trained midwives available in Afghanistan during the civil war. The country will
eventually need 8,000 to 10,000 midwives to strengthen the overall quality of health care.
The midwifery education program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID).
About Jhpiego
For nearly 40 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
About The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
is a global leader in nursing research, education and scholarship and is ranked among the top 10
nursing higher education institutions in the country. The School's community health program is second
in the nation and the nursing research program now holds eighth position among nursing schools
securing federal research grants. The School continues to maintain its reputation for excellence
and educates nurses who set the highest standards for patient care, exemplify scholarship,
and become innovative national and international leaders in the evolution of the nursing
profession and the health care system.
|
