PRISMA Study Team Organises Training Sessions for Staff and Healthcare Providers

June 02, 2023 | News | Reading time: 3 min

The Pregnancy Risk, Infant Surveillance, and Measurement Alliance (PRISMA) Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) Study: A multi-center, prospective cohort study of maternal, newborn, and infant health is currently ongoing in five (5) Low Middle-Income Countries (Ghana, India, Kenya, Pakistan, and Zambia). The study procedures include building the capacity of study staff and healthcare providers to identify any clinical signs or symptoms as defined by the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood illnesses (IMCI) criteria.

Based on this requirement, the PRISMA study team at the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) organized a 5-days training on the on IMCI guidelines for about sixty-two (62) project staff from 21st to 24th March and 24th to 27th April 2023. Again, on Monday, 29th May to 2nd June, 2023 another training session was organized for thirty (30) healthcare providers (Physicians and Nurses) working within the Kintampo North Municipality.

The contents of these trainings covered capacity building initiative for trainees to appropriately assess, classify and counsel study mothers on their infants’ condition and refer when necessary for care from a health facility. The topics discussed included; skills in assessing the infant or child to determine illness or possible infections, classification of the infections or illnesses, identification of treatment options for the infant or child, strategies for counseling the mother, strategies for follow up care.

These training sessions were facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Asibey, a paediatrician from the Holy family hospital, Techiman, Dr Rosemond Kokoro a paediatrician from St. Theresa Hospital, Nkoranza and Dr Felicia Serwah, a clinical research fellow at the Kintampo Health Research Centre.