Blended Oncology Nursing Training: A Quality Initiative in East Africa.

PURPOSE: Lack of education and awareness about cancer treatment may result in suboptimal care of patients with cancer. Unlike high-income countries, resource-limited countries lack the standardized training and scope of practice in oncology nursing. This quality improvement project was conducted to assess nurses' knowledge gain, retention of knowledge and clinical skill set, and feasibility of a blended learning approach in the care of adult oncology patients across four hospitals in Kenya and Tanzania. METHOD: We used a combination of computer-led eLearning sessions and face-to-face interactions over 12 months for cancer education to oncology nurses. Pre- and posttests with each training session were combined with face-to-face clinical skills training at beginning and completion of the course. A comprehensive postassessment was conducted immediately after the training, and at 6, 9, and 12 months to evaluate knowledge gain and retention. CONCLUSION: Of 21 participants across four sites, there was a statistically significant improvement in knowledge scores for 12 participants (P value < .05). The mean pre- and posttest results found significant differences across 10 sessions individually and cumulatively (P value < .01). Results from a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) test on comprehensive test results suggested that there was no significant difference in knowledge retention across 9 months (F(2, 30) = 1.648412, P > .05). IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Blended learning is an effective tool in improving knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy for clinicians practicing in resource-limited countries. Developing a structured oncology training program has implications for bridging knowledge gaps among clinicians in resource-limited countries and promoting international knowledge exchange.

Establishing Palliative Care across the AKDN Health Services: Opportunities and Challenges.

AKDN has one of the most comprehensive private not-for-profit health care systems in the developing world. It has state-of-the-art urban academic tertiary care centers, service hospitals and community based primary care centers spread across the most remote areas of Central and South Asia and East Africa. In response to a global initiative to make palliative care widely available, the AKDN is spearheading the integration of palliative care across its international health network. The scope includes specialist palliative care services in urban tertiary care centers across secondary and outreach programs to home based palliative care services. The ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive structure of palliative care services which, in addition tofulfilling the vision of quality, also fulfills the needs of the communities that it serves. This article describes the international undertaking; its challenges and the key contextual design principles of the implementation.