Dar & the Pilot, thus far.

Jambo!

The team is all together now, as our remaining teammates have finally arrived. With this, we have been very busy for the past week. We have been working with our MUHAS counterparts, faculty advisors, and staff to revise the study questionnaires. We have also been meeting to figure out the study protocol, procedures for the pilot study, and organizing the logistics for implementation.

Although there is much to be done, it has been a rewarding experience to work with such a diverse group of students and faculty. Since our teams are comprised of people from various professional backgrounds, we have been able to learn a lot from each other. One of the most rewarding experiences is to be able to get to know our student counterparts from MUHAS. As a group, we have worked to identify challenges and solutions. One of the greatest challenges has been how to locate participants for the surveys, since there is no overarching governmental board that maintains official records of its health professionals. We have also had opportunities to review the key professional competencies needed to deliver effective health services throughout Tanzania. Next week, we will begin training and piloting the tracer study in preparation for launching the study.

Dar es Salaam, which translates to ‘haven of peace’, is nestled on the east coast of Tanzania, right on the Indian Ocean. It is the largest city in Tanzania, making it the unofficial capital of the country. The location of the city lends itself to many places for exploration. Our team has been able to discover Dar and its surrounding areas; we have gone to nearby beaches, fish markets, local artists co-ops, to visit health centers in near Kilamanjaro, community trachoma projects in nearby districts, and accidentally run into the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki. Our experiences have given us a richer understanding in which to contextualize our work. We are looking forward to gaining new experiences as we travel into various districts during the tracer study.

Introduction

Our team of UCSF and MUHAS students is currently congregating at the MUHAS campus in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to work with the Academic Learning Project.

 UCSF and MUHAS have an established collaborative partnership aimed at enriching and improving medical research and training on both campuses. The Academic Learning Project (ALP), which we will be helping with while in Dar is a research initiative founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The long term goal of the ALP is to improve the health of the Tanzanian people by increasing the numbers of health care professionals in the country. There is currently a critical shortage of trained health care providers in Tanzania, with only 3 physicians per 100,000 people and 13 nurses for 100,000- well below the WHO recommendations. The ALP is intended to be a three year project that will produces revised undergraduate and graduate curriculums that will allow practitioners to meet the health needs of Tanzanians. It is hoped that the ALP will serve as a model of a successful and mutually beneficial partnership between African and American Universities.

 We will be working on the Tracer Study for which we will be interviewing recent MUHAS graduates, their employers, co-workers and patients in order to identify competencies and deficiencies in their training from MUHAS. This needs assessment will serve as the basis for future curriculum revisions and development.

 While working on the Tracer Study we will be partnering with current MUHAS students, and will be paired according to discipline (for example a UCSF dentistry with a MUHAS dentistry student etc). Our team consists of students from all faculties- medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and public health. 

Kwaherini,

Molly, Evan, Lin, & Joy