Recorded presentation

Tamara Fetters, MPH¹, Janie Benson, DrPH¹, Victor Huapaya, MD², Akin Akiode, MSc³, and Rodolfo Gomez Ponce de Leon, MD, MPH⁴. (1) Research and Evaluation Unit, Ipas, 300 Market St, Ste 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, 919-960-5629, fetterst@ipas.org, (2) Training and Service Delivery Improvement, Ipas, 300 Market Street, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC NC 27516, (3) Research and Evaluation Unit, Ipas Nigeria, Ralph Sodeinde St., Central Area, Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria, (4) School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Rosenau Hall CB#7400, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

In-service training programs, an expensive intervention option, continue to be a cornerstone of international development, skills and technology transfer. Many international programs have explored new modalities for diffusion of information but this model has proven difficult to replace. The field of postabortion care (PAC) is no different, since the inception of this initiative in the 1970s, dozens of international agencies have focused primarily on improving skills of health care providers to be able to respond more efficiently and comprehensively to the complications of abortion. It is widely believed that this work has led to improved quality of care and increased access to life-saving services. However, there have been few large-scale systematic studies to assess training effectiveness, technology adoption and skill retention, most programs rely on pre-post test data and routine supervision. This multi-site retrospective study addresses this gap by locating and interviewing health care providers involved in National scale-up programs for comprehensive PAC service delivery and trained by the international NGO Ipas, during the two years prior to the study. In Nigeria (n=201) and Bolivia (n=151) providers were interviewed to determine how well they were able to put their training into practice and if other environmental, institutional or individual factors facilitated or hindered them from improving their provider performance. We report on two similar training models on these two continents and how factors such as the provision of supplies and equipment, selection criteria, national standards and guidelines, health systems and gender affected training outcomes (provider performance) and ultimately, women’s care.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe environmental, institutional and personal factors, outside of the direct training process, that hinder or facilitate utilization of skills acquired during PAC training.
• Articulate a variety of methods for the evaluation of in-service training impact.

Keywords: Training, Post-Abortion Care

Related Web page: www.ipas.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Ipas: Ipas is an international NGO working in the field of reproductive and sexual health and rights. Ipas is also the manufacturer and distributor of manual vacuum aspiration instruments.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Ipas is an international NGO working in the field of reproductive and sexual health and rights. Ipas is also the manufacturer and distributor of manual vacuum aspiration instruments. The authors are employed by Ipas.

Recorded presentation