Impact of malaria diagnostic refresher training programme on competencies and skills in malaria diagnosis among medical laboratory professionals: evidence from Ghana 2015–2019

Autor: Mary Tetteh, Duah Dwomoh, Alexander Asamoah, Edward King Kupeh, Keziah Malm, Justice Nonvignon
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Malaria Journal, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1475-2875
DOI: 10.1186/s12936-021-03796-x
Popis: Abstract Background The quality of malaria test results is crucial for optimal patient treatment and care. The Ghana Health Service is successfully shifting from presumptive clinical diagnosis and treatment of malaria to the Test, Treat and Track (T3) initiative. In line with the initiative, the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) set out to improve the capacity of medical laboratory professionals in Ghana through a five-day Malaria Diagnostic Refresher Training (MDRT) to build competencies and skills in malaria diagnosis, especially in the three components of microscopy: parasite detection, species identification and parasite quantification. This study evaluates the impact of the training on malaria microscopy. Methods The training which was based on the World Health Organization basic malaria microscopy training guide employed presentations and practical approaches to malaria diagnosis. A total number of 765 medical laboratory professionals from various health facilities across the country were trained every other year from 2015 to 2019 and were included in this evaluation. Evaluation of this training was done using pre-test and post-test microscopy scores. The Negative Binomial fixed effect model was used in determining the overall effect of the training in improving the competencies of the participants on malaria microscopy. Results The ability of the medical laboratory professionals to correctly detect malaria parasites increased significantly from a median score of 64% prior to the training to 87% after the training (p
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