Blended Learning: An Innovative Approach to Global Health Training and Education

More than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, yet access to high quality rehabilitative services is limited for many of those living in the developing world. Building the capacity of in-country healthcare professionals to provide quality care is essential to narrowing the gap in appropriate services and treatment, but access to education and training is often limited due to constraints such as location, time, employment, and lack of opportunities available within the community. To address a gap in prosthetic and orthotic (P&O) training  and certification available in the Dominican Republic, Physicians for Peace (PFP) collaborated with Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación (ADR), a local clinical partner providing P&O services, to implement a blended learning approach for training technicians. Blended learning is a multi-modal approach to education that complements distance learning with hands-on training.  PFP and ADR partnered with an internationally-recognized certification program to offer an online training curriculum to P&O technicians while they continued working full-time. Volunteer international medical educators supplemented the online curriculum with regular hands-on training in the facilities where the technicians work, often utilizing challenging cases for teaching opportunities. An external evaluation was conducted on this blended learning approach to assess the strengths, challenges, and optimal resources for program delivery. Experiences from technicians, clinic and university administrators, and program collaborators as well as evaluators’ reflections will be shared to provide an understanding of the benefits and challenges in executing this blended learning approach. Suggestions for future blended learning opportunities will be provided.