Improving Nursing & Midwifery Care in Liberia

Friends of Liberia-Liberia Health Team

Improving Nursing and Midwifery Education in Liberia

            The FOL-Liberia Health Team (FOL-LHT) conducted a needs assessment in September 2020. The overarching goal was to identify what instructional faculty and practicing nurses believed could improve their teaching and clinical skills, respectively. The needs assessment followed plans for the continuing professional development (CPD) workshops and budgetary allocations that were supported by the Friends of Liberia-USA and GlobalGiving.

Target Audiences: Nursing Faculty & Practicing Nurses/Midwives

            We targeted 20 nursing/midwifery faculty from 20 nursing/midwifery training institutes (TIs) accredited by the Liberian Board for Nursing and Midwifery (LBNM) plus one participant from the LBNM who served as a participant and observer for the LBNM. We also targeted 20 practicing nurses/midwives from major hospitals in Liberia plus one representative from the Liberian Nurses’ Association (LNA) who served as participant and observer for the LNA. We gave priority to hospitals in rural Liberia because they have limited access to CPD workshops.

Situation Analysis of the Needs Assessment

            The COVID-19 which was reported on December 19, 2019, prompted the FOL-LHT to conduct an online needs assessment. As a token of appreciation, participants were informed in the valid consent that they would be given a five-dollar scratch of their choice of GSM company upon completion of the needs assessment. The FOL-LHT made a constant reminder to participants during the needs assessment. We received 100% of the participant's questionnaires. Strategies to ensure full participation in the questionnaires included a five-dollar scratch card to a GSM company of their choice after completion of the survey and several email messages as reminders from the FOL-LHT were sent to the participants. Through the online needs assessment, facilitators identified five topical areas for the nursing/midwifery and practicing nurses/midwives, respectively.

Details of Contents of the Workshop Activities

For the Instructional Faculty

            The five top priority areas selected by the participants included (a)curriculum design and development, (b)writing research proposal, (c) test items analysis/banking, (d) evaluating educational programs, and (e)writing objectives using the backward design. We targeted 20 participants from accredited nursing/midwifery TIs across Liberia plus one participant from the LBNM who was both participant and observer. Three TIs could not send participants because these institutions were not accredited by the LBNM.

For the Practicing Nurses/Midwives

            The five priority areas selected by the participants included (a) documentation, (b) nursing process especially for the critical patients, (c) customers service, (d) evidence-based clinical guidelines, and (e) performing emergency procedures. As with the instructional faculty, we targeted 20 practicing nurses/midwives plus one participant from the Liberian Nurses’ Association who was to serve as participant and observer. However, only 17 participants turned out from major hospitals from across Liberia. It is not known why the other four participants did not turn out.

Outcomes of the Workshop

            Under the guidance of FOL-LHT expert nurse-educators and supported by FOL-US and GlobalGiving, the workshop contributed to the enhancement of competencies and evidence-based instructions of nursing/midwifery faculty and clinical skills of nurses/midwives who participated in the workshop. This conclusion was based on post-workshop evaluations. Another outcome of the workshop was that participants were prepared as trainers to conduct similar workshops at their various institutions. The FOL-LHT has received information that participants from two major hospitals and one major nursing/midwifery training school have conducted workshops at their respective institutions using resources from the FOL-LHT-led CPD. Other participants shared their training resources on colleagues’ flash drives and computers.

Next Planning Strategies

            The current COVID-19 might have long-lasting impact on the future of nursing/midwifery educators’ instructional skills and practicing nurses’ and midwives’ clinical skills if plans are not made to fill in the gaps caused by the pandemic. One way to fill in the gap is continuing professional development. In that regard, the FOL-LHT has planned to design a future one-week workshop arranged for both faculty and clinicians.

Future Plans

     The Liberian Health Team is working now to ready for a week-long workshop in January 2022. This workshop will include both faculty and clinicians. The plan is to include a day of overlap so the two groups can get to know each other and support each other in their work. Fundraising for the January 2022 workshop will being in October 2021 when a new project will be listed on GlobalGiving.

   We want to thank all of our supporters for helping us reach our goal.

Links:

• Learn more about Friends of Liberia health programs

In addition to being a resource-limited country, Liberia also faces the problem of human resource development in areas such as continuing faculty development. One way to mitigate such a problem is to conduct a periodic professional development workshop. Therefore, the Friends of Liberia-Liberia Health (FOL-LHT), a group composed of five nurse educators and one computational biologist, sought and received support from FOL-US and GlobalGiving with the overarching goal of improving the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of nursing and midwifery faculty in providing evidence-based instructions to their students and colleagues. This overarching goal aligns with the Liberian Board for Nursing and Midwifery standards of renewals of licenses based on attending and receiving a certificate from continuing professional development workshop.

The FOL-LHT successfully conducted the five-day workshop in Phebe, Suakoko, BongCounty with 18 nursing/midwifery teaching faculty and a participant from the Liberian Board for Nursing and Midwifery in attendance. In order to maintain the gains and help solidify the nursing and midwifery profession in Liberia, We recommend that another Continuing Professional Development workshop be conducted in January 2022.

Evaluation of the Workshop by participants:

Using the Likert Scale ranging from 5 to 1, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, participants were asked to evaluate the following areas: Curriculum development and design, course objectives using the backward design, Evaluating education program Test Analysis, Research Proposal, and Service and Venue.Overall, participants strongly agree or agree that they learned new things and the objectives of the workshop were achieved. Also, participants strongly agreed or agreed that the venue was suitable, training materials were appropriate, times were well managed, workshop was well organized, and food provided was of sufficient amount and good quality (see appendix 5). In closing, participants,and facilitators received reimbursement for transportation and lodging plus daily per diem(see appendix3)

Benefits of the Workshop to the Participants: 

Each participant received flash drive uploaded with workshop resource materials plus other instructional and educational resources and links to international nursing organizations such as Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI)/International Council of Nurses (ICN) and Stigma Theta Tau International (STTI). Participants also established communication networks aimed at sharing information pertinent for nursing/midwifery education in Liberia.

 Next immediate steps:

1. Framing of FOL-Liberia HealthTeam constitution/articles of incorporation to be modelled and contextualized after FOL-US constitution (inprogress).
2.  Registration of FOL-LHT with government of Liberia (inprogress).
3. Arrange with Liberian Board for Nursing and Midwiferyand Liberian Nurses Association to accept credit units from Friends of Liberia-Liberian Health Team Continuing Professional Development workshop.

 Thanks to the support of GlobalGiving and Friends of Liberia donors, the workshops were successful. Plans are also underway to conduct a future workshop arranged for both faculty and clinicians.Monday and Tuesday will be solely faculty and Thursday and Friday will be solely clinicians. In between on Wednesday, there will be combined sessions for both faculty and clinicians to discuss how theory and clinical practice can sufficiently align for the benefit of nursing and midwifery students and by extension, the patients. 

Plese enjoy the workshop photos. We have also attached a complete final report outlining details of how the funds were spent. Thank you everyone for your contributions. Any additional donations received will go towards our 2022 project. 

• Final FOL-LHT 2021 CPD Workshop Report (PDF)