Developing a global partnership to adapt and deliver interprofessional education faculty training in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic: reporting on an innovative collaboration

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional (IP) education is imperative to foster collaboration within and between healthcare professions to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. Increasing the capacity of health professions faculty to effectively deliver learning about IP knowledge and skills fosters sustainability of IP care in health systems. This short report describes a series of three virtual IP faculty development workshops during 2020–2021 that used a Train-the-Trainer approach and adopted flexible and context-specific teaching methods to enhance learning. The collaboration involved interprofessional researchers from the University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice and Kenyan health professions faculty and was supported by a global health grant. Learners were drawn from multiple health professions and healthcare institutions in Kenya. Content was packaged in lectures, videos, pictures, and session notes. Teaching methods adopted included lecturing, discussing, playing videos, interpretation of pictures, and reading text notes. The Train-the-Trainer approach helped ensure that workshop content and plans were relevant to participants. Workshop participants shared positive feedback about the trainings and showed a good grasp of the concepts and skills. In-built feedback mechanisms in training were key in supporting the programme and ensured continuous improvement within and between sessions. This collaboration offers an innovative example of a global partnership to support IP faculty development and mainstreaming of IPE in training and in practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Global partnerships
• innovative collaboration
• interprofessional education
• interprofessional faculty development

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by University of Nairobi (UON) Health-Professional Education Partnership Initiative (HEPI) Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The HEPI Program is funded by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number [5R25TW011212-05].In addition, EAB’s time during the writing and revision of this manuscript was supported by a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute K23 [1K23HL144910-01A1].

Notes on contributors

Erin Abu-Rish Blakeney

Erin Abu-Rish Blakeney PhD, RN is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing. She is also a co- lead of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences Team Science Core and affiliate faculty with the UW Center for Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice. Her research focuses on patient- and family-centered care, interprofessional/team science, and implementation science.

Angeline Chepchirchir

Angeline Chepchirchir, RN, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nairobi. Dr. Chepchirchir’s research interests in community health nursing, nursing education, and infectious disease research.

Rosemary Kawira Kithuci

Rosemary Kawira Kithuci PhD, RN is a Lecturer and Chair of Nursing Education, Leadership, and Management Department at the School of Nursing, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). Her research interests are in the areas of Interprofessional education and collaborative practice, Nursing education including curricula innovations.

Ruth Nduati

Ruth Nduati, MBChB, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi.

Dalton Wamalwa

Dalton Wamalwa, MBChB, M.Med, MPH, is Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child, University of Nairobi. His research interests include paediatric infectious disease and cross-cutting faculty capacity building in research methodology.

Carey Farquhar

Carey Farquhar, MD, MPH is a Professor at the University of Washington in the Departments of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology.

Daniel K. Ojuka

Daniel Kinyuru Ojuka, PhD, MMed Surgery, MBBS, FACS, AMAMSE is Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, University of Nairobi. His research interests is in medical education and breast cancer.

Pamela Kohler

Pamela Kohler, PhD, MPH, RN is a Professor of Global Health and Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing at the University of Washington.

Mayumi Anne Willgerodt

Mayumi Willgerodt, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, FNASN is the Mary S. Tschudin Endowed Professor in Nursing Education at the University of Washington (UW) and affiliate faculty in the UW Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice and Center for Global Health Nursing. Her research interests lie at the intersection of school health services, particularly school nursing services, interprofessional collaborative practice, and team-based care.