Community Service Agenda
By investing in ongoing medical education, GMH is not merely addressing a knowledge gap; it is fundamentally reshaping the healthcare landscape in rural Ghana.
To improve evidence-based patient care and address the need for more northern physicians, GMH launched the Community Service Agenda (CSA). Since 2012, GMH has been delivering medical education and training for northern healthcare workers. This innovative project is designed not just to save lives and create local clinical trainers in every hospital, but also to create a closer healthcare community and mentorship relationships.
At the heart of CSA lies its weekly educational presentation series. This dynamic initiative brings together healthcare professionals virtually and in-person to delve into high-yield medical topics presented by experts. The success of these sessions is evident in the escalating attendance, from an initial average of 40 participants per presentation in 2021 to over 100 health workers in recent gatherings. Topics span a spectrum of medical conditions relevant to rural Ghana, ranging from malaria and diabetes to strokes.
Weekly presentations from topic experts, which describe evidence-based clinical guidelines, are instrumental for physicians in northern Ghana to deliver quality patient care.
The CSA project includes annual clinical training courses on adult, pediatric and neonatal resuscitation. These hands-on courses equip physicians and nurses in the Upper East and Upper West Region with critical lifesaving skills. What makes this sustainable is its “train-the-trainers” model, whereby trainees become proficient trainers who, in turn, teach the course to nurses at their respective hospital sites.
GMH delivers an annual Adult, Pediatric and Neonatal Basic Life Support course to equip healthcare workers with critical lifesaving skills.
GMH is committed to rigorous evaluation through a comprehensive research case study. Regular surveys conducted every six months among presentation attendees provide a nuanced understanding of the impact of CSA’s educational programs. Preliminary results are overwhelmingly positive; more than 98% of respondents found the presentations helpful and relevant, with over 89% actively applying their newfound knowledge to enhance patient care.
For more details, please read the article titled, ‘Impact and Perceptions of Continued Medical Education Opportunities Among Clinicians in Rural Ghana, A Case Study of a Novel Virtual Grand Rounds’, which describes the findings after the first two surveys were conducted.
The Community Service Agenda was met with enthusiasm and immediately embraced by the northern medical community. It was even commended and heralded as ‘exceptional’ by the Ghana Medical Association during their 63rd Annual General Meeting. We have an average of 60 attendees per week, which consist of physicians, physician assistants, nurses, students, and pharmacists.
We have demonstrated the profound impact that investing in healthcare worker education can have. In just over three years, the physician workforce at the Wa Regional Hospital increased from 4 to over 70! The CSA not only attracted new physicians to the region but played a pivotal role in their decision to stay. Of the physicians who completed their House Officer service in Wa in 2023, over three-quarters chose to remain in the Upper West Region—a testament to the CSA’s role in fostering a sense of community and mentorship.
By investing in ongoing medical education, GMH is not merely addressing a knowledge gap but is fundamentally reshaping the healthcare landscape in rural Ghana.
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