Primary Health Care and Health Systems Development Course

Introduction
Primary Health Care (PHC) has been globally accepted as an appropriate strategy for universal coverage of essential health care on equitable basis, accessible at an affordable cost with full participation of the people. Implementation of simple PHC technologies has resulted in substantial reduction of mortality and morbidity and enhancing the life expectancy. Government of Pakistan has a commitment to adopt PHC philosophy, concepts and strategies as an essential part of healthcare system of the country. To fulfill this commitment, there is a need to train and reorient health care personnel about PHC as a strategy and its techniques, for its effective and meaningful implementation.

Keeping in view the need for frontline professionals in PHC, the Department of Community Health Sciences at Aga Khan University (AKU-CHS) has designed a four-weeks training course in PHC and Health Systems Development. The purpose of the course is to build upon and compliment their existing knowledge and skills and to equip them with necessary tools for improved performance in PHC. Under the aegis of Continuing Education Programme of the Department, this course is being offered since 2003 and to date seven courses have trained 180 participants, mainly from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Goal
The overall goal of this training programme is to educate front-line and other related health care providers in PHC philosophy, principles, concepts and strategies, to enable them to become proactive leaders in PHC who are ready to take on problem solving, mentoring and decision making roles.

Objectives
At the end of the course, participants would be able to:

• comprehend PHC as a philosophy and concept;
• desscribe PHC principles, components, strategies and their significance in health care;
• learn how to apply these in the development of health care system, especially in field settings;
• relate PHC associated skills in field-based pursuits as the functions of frontline health care providers;
• translate application of strategies to communities, women, health and development.
  

Course Outline
The course includes both classroom and field based training components. The framework for classroom based component divides the study content into four broader areas, which are, contextual issues, operational issues, level of operations and measuring change for PHC strategies. The content under each area are given below.

Class Based Training
I. Contextual issues: (How PHC operates and its opportunities for development)

• Goals and Value (Broad goals and values)

II. Operational issues
  1. Serving, planning and development

• Health program management
• Leadership in health
• Health policy and PHC reforms
• Health and Development
• Healthcare Systems Development
• Management audit

Field Based Training
For learning PHC techniques, participants will work in small groups at urban field sites in squatter settlements of Karachi, being managed by the Department. Each group will work with PHC team members to be able to:

• Get aquatinted with PHC concepts and their application;
• Observe how NGOs are working in PHC;
• Identify the problems and learn interventions;
• Analyse and resolve the problems.

Participants will write a report on their experiences.

Teaching Methods
Qualified and experienced faculty and staff of the AKU-CHS and other departments at AKU will conduct the training course. The basic educational strategy is 'Learning by Doing', with the participatory approach. The interactive classroom sessions, group work and panel discussions will be complemented with relevant field based exposure for experiential learning.

Each day will begin with a review of the previous day's work by one or two participants. Similarly the day will end with an overview of the next day's programme.

The learning will be reinforced with the mid module and end of module panel discussions, to provide an opportunity to the participants to deliberate on and further clarify any of the concepts or contents with the help of faculty panelists. The panelists will include faculty involved in implementing PHC models and health systems interventions.

A course book will be given at the beginning of the programme. Different teaching materials and handouts will be made available during the programme for complementary reading, preparation of assignments and for ready reference.

Evaluation
At the beginning of the training course, the participants will give a pre-test to find out areas requiring further strengthening. Similarly at the end, a post-test will facilitate to know the extent of learning achieved during the training course. Participants will also conduct daily and overall evaluations of the training course.

Who Should Attend
The training course would be useful for senior and mid-level health and development planners, managers and researchers, working with the Government, NGOs, and national and international development agencies. This would benefit not only the course participants, but also their parent organisations, programmes and the populations they serve.

Eligibilty
Participant should hold a graduate degree in health or social sciences from a recognised institution with 2-5 years' work experience in health care organisations. English is the exclusive language of instruction, therefore participants must be comfortable to read, write and speak in English language.

Duration of the Course
The duration of the course is 4 weeks (21 working days). The scheduled dates are from May 3 to 28, 2010, both days inclusive.

Tuition Fee
The course tuition fee is Rs 28,000/= (US$ 400/= applicable for international participants) which covers classroom instructions, field visits, course material, refreshments and simple lunch during working hours.

Deadline to Receive Applications
Interested candidates should send brief CV along with filled Registration Form latest by
April 3, 2010 to:

Mr Amin Hirani
Senior Programme Officer
Continuing Education Programme
Community Health Sciences Department
Email: amin.hirani@aku.edu
Tel: +92-21-34864839 / 34864802

Course Director
Dr Agha Ajmal
Assistant Professor
Tel:+92-21-34864888
Email: ajmal.agha@aku.edu