Africa Network for Non-Physician Clinician Training Community of Practice

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By: David Lusale and Charlemagne Ouedraogo, Africa Network for Non-Physician Clinician Training Community of Practice

Did you know that more than half of Sub-Saharan African countries utilize Non-Physician Clinicians (NPCs)—health professionals (such as clinical officers, assistant medical officers, medical assistants, health officers, tecnicos de cirugia and medical licentiates) who perform critical clinical functions conventionally assigned to medical doctors?i Did you know that over 80% of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) in Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique is provided by NPCs) Did you know that Zambia has planned to more than double its number of NPCs – the Medical Licentiates?

The purpose of our Africa Network for Non-Physician Clinician Training Community of Practice is to share knowledge, expertise and innovations on NPC training and education so that we can:

  1. Gain political and professional support for NPCs
  2. Improve the quality and development of training in EmONC
  3. Decrease maternal mortality

Objectives of our Community of Practice include:

  1. Establish a functional CoP within 18 months
  2. Create awareness and partnerships
  3. Support the development and expansion of quality NPC programs
  4. Support research activities among CoP members

To join our listserv please log on to: http://my.ibpinitiative.org/NPC and follow the instructions to “join this group.”

Our first online discussion will take place on from February 21-25, 2011. Don’t miss out as we discuss successful models of networking through a community of practice for successfully sharing knowledge, expertise and innovation in training and education.

We look forward to your participation!

This work is supported by Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD), Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia, NY and the American College of Nurse-Midwives with funding from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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