Mothers can’t decide who treats them and, during emergencies, mistakes can be fatal. Every nurse needs the requisite training to respond to a variety of emergency cases, so that mothers can rely on quality support, whatever the issue.

That’s why our nurse training curriculum nurse focuses on a broad spectrum of lifesaving skills, from handling a breech delivery to resuscitating a newborn. Previously, we’ve tracked curriculum completion by facility, but we realized this didn’t give us granular visibility into how individual nurses were performing.

In April, we tested a new approach to ensure every nurse had the full suite of obstetric skills. Nurse champions were made responsible for upskilling a smaller, handpicked cohort of mentees, meaning they could pinpoint training to address specific skills gaps. Mentees were asked to log their training progress, building accountability towards curriculum completion while generating granular, provider-level data on skills improvements and gaps.

The approach had a dramatic impact on knowledge scores and curriculum completion among the nurse participants, who were celebrated in a widely-attended graduation ceremony this July. Our hope is now to scale this approach to the wider program, so that every nurse has the confidence and competence to support the majority of cases.

MENTORS distinguishes itself from standard classroom training. By shifting the learning environment directly to the maternity ward, our health workers absorb and apply their lessons in real time, enhancing critical thinking and decision-making. As a County, this has saved us not only significant resources ensuring that nurses were available to provide mothers with the right quality care around the clock. – Dr. Fredrick K. Mbugua, County Executive Committee Member (Health)