Continuing Medical Education with the use of Information Communication Technologies by Rural Health Workers in Uganda: Nkozi Hospital as a case study

Continuing medical education (CME) at Nkozi hospital, in Uganda's Mpigi district, is an idea born for the purposes of revising medical practices with the view of progression and improved treatment methods for the patients that frequent the hospital. Study report written by Caroline Wamala.

This CME programme targets rural health workers and more than 90% of the district’s population is primarily rural. Up until 2006, CME activities were non-technologically oriented. Information communication technologies (ICT), were introduced to the CME programme in 2006. It is therefore the purpose of this report to ascertain the impact ICT has had on the programme, and to also determine the influence ICT has had on the health officials involved in CME. 

Continuing medical education (CME) involves constant revision of medical practices by health workers to make sure that quality health is delivered to the patients that need it. This is an extremely vital exercise as it ensures that practices keep up with or are even a step ahead of the ever changing, ever evolving sicknesses that plague human beings. Nkozi hospital’s ranking in the health architectural design is in the top tier, making it one of the referral hospitals within the HSD (Health Sub District); further insisting on the hospital’s provision of the best services.

According to Dr Assumpta Nabawanuka (the coordinator of the CME programme at the hospital) the CME programme was in practice at Nkozi hospital when she joined the medical staff in 2005. I refer to this stage as the pre-ICT CME era. Post-ICT CME era refers to the induction of ICTs to the programme, enhancing the process involving resource collection prior to CME presentations.

During the pre-ICT CME era, the medical literature available to the hospital was old, there were no computers available to the hospital staff, save for the administrative staff, and for presentation purposes the staff relied on chalk and blackboard, or flipcharts. The morale for attending the CME sessions among the hospital staff was low in comparison to the post-ICT CME workshops. In Dr Nabawanuka’s words it was a ‘limping’ project up  until ICTs were introduced.

Uganda and the rest of the world recognise the potential ICTs have towards developmental efforts in various sectors. The use of ICT in the heath sector, has the potential to develop the health workers medical practices, through enabled world wide information access resources such as the Internet, and it also allows for remote communication or consultative electronic rendezvous.

The purpose of this particular research is to therefore establish how the CME programme has evolved since the inception of ICT. The study asks what ICTs have brought to CME that was lacking before or the trials the project faced up until the ICTs were brought on board. It is important to note that there are two other pilot hospitals to this project. Itojo hospital in Ntungamo and Mutolere hospital in Kisoro district also promote CME with ICTs and there is inter-hospital communication between these health centres. This study focuses on just Nkozi hospital as it is the centre that was visited.

Read the full report online

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