Strengthening Human And Institutional Capacity: A Program Assessment

<p>Shortages of health care workers compromises the ability for health workers to provide care. Rwanda’s priority to increase the production and quality of the health care workforce through multilateral partnerships demonstrates their commitment to achieve positive health outcomes, promote sustainability, and self-sufficiency over time. This descriptive case study documented the impact of institutional capacity developed in Rwanda’s health and education system through the twinning model from 2011 to 2016.</p> <p>This case study was a desk review of historical data on the twinning initiative between US faculty and their Rwandan counterparts. The coding technique was used to analyze text from historical data - repetition, key words in context, compare and contrast, and connectors to identify codes. The codes were further analyzed through a reiterative process to identify focused codes, subthemes, and overarching themes.</p> <p>From 33 historical documents, five overarching themes were used to describe the impact of institutional capacity – development, education, systems development positive health outcomes, and barriers to sustainability. The findings revealed that 1.) The twinning model was influential in expanding the health professional programs offered at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences; 2.) The twinning approach improved teaching practices from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences faculty; 3.) The twinning initiative had some positive effect on service delivery practices, which led to improvements in heath policy in select disease focus areas; 4.) The findings revealed mix results in the perception of the impact the twinning initiative had on faculty development at the University of Rwanda College of Medicine and Health Sciences; and 5.) It is too early to determine the impact of the program on the number of highly skilled professionals practicing Rwanda’s health workforce.</p> <p>The findings from the document review showed that the partnership between US and Rwandan faculty led to increasing the number of health education programs offered at the University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences. This study illuminated an example of how mutual learning exchanges can influence comprehensive, system-level changes to improve national education policy and build the infrastructure necessary to sustain that practice. This results of this study could be used to strengthen the current SRHC program and to provide a model practice for similar countries looking to increase efficiency of foreign aid and build a sustainable future in health care.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Mtiro, Emma Kofa

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brianna Parsons
• Michael Patrick
• Angela Makota

• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Educational Leadership

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dune.une.edu/theses/150

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dune.une.edu:theses-1149