ALL MEPI (Kenya) Meeting

(College of Health Sciences Principal Prof. Isaac Kibwage giving a speech during the meeting)

All MEPI (Kenya) meeting is a biannual forum intended to bring all the members from the PRIME K board, Program staff and Aim members including the four collaborating institutions to share the progress of the program. The first one this year was held on February 28, 2014 at the Central Catering Unit (CCU) in the main campus.

This biannual review meeting was held at the Heron Court Hotel; 16^th July 2014. A preliminary report was presented by the consultant on qualitative assessment carried out about two months ago.

The meeting saw all the consortium partners for the MEPI-Kenya grant come together to discuss the current status of the program. (University of Nairobi, University of Washington, University of Maryland Baltimore, Kenyatta University and Maseno University)

Speaking during the event, the Program’s Principal Investigator, Prof. James Kiare reflected on the wonderful four years and support of all key stakeholders as MEPI-Kenya strives to achieve its main goal to strengthen health care outcomes and training for better health outcomes for Kenyans through improving medical education, extending reach of medical outside Nairobi, supporting faculty and the university to improve research.

“Since MEPI-Kenya was formed, it’s been an incredible journey for the University as the program sort to implement its objectives. We have integrated the use of technology to enhance learning, the Nursing Upgrading program an example.” He stated.

“We have also been able to successfully decentralized medical training by sending our students for rotations in established 17 decentralized sites country wide. This would not have been possible were it not for your support and collaboration.” He added.

The event was also graced by the Principal, UoN College of Health Sciences, Prof. Isaac Kibwage. In his speech, the Principal highlighted the impact that MEPI-Kenya has had on college in terms of innovating new ways to offer medical training.

“It’s impressive how this program has innovated teaching methodologies like the Nurses upgrading program from a diploma to degree level by use of E-learning platform. It is my hope that through this program continues to positively impact teaching methods and henceforth help improve health outcomes in our country.” He stated.

He also added that the program has not only had an impact on ways the college offer training but has had an immense influence on the faculty as well. He urged all the key players in MEPI-Kenya to press on to not only achieve the programs’ goals but to even further surpass them. This will place the program in a better position for the next phase of funding and eventually the walk towards sustainability.

The standout outcome from the meeting after the presentations by all the programs’ stakeholders was that MEPI-Kenya had achieved majority of the goals albeit the challenges along the way which were dealt with efficiently and served as learning lessons as the years progressed.

As the program enters its fifth and final year, the team braces itself to attain excellence for better health outcomes in Kenya.

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PRIME-K

“Improving health outcomes through training and research”

CARP WORKSHOP

(The Principal College of Health Sciences Prof. Isaac Kibwage giving a speech at the event)

This was a five (5) day intensive training workshop fully sponsored by PRIME-K, a NIH Grant to the University of Nairobi (UoN). The training was organized by College of Health Sciences, UoN, in collaboration with National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) and Kenyatta National Referral and Teaching Hospital (KNH). There were a total of 45 participants from 19 accredited Ethics and Research Committees (ERCs) in Kenya representing twelve (12) public and private universities, four (4) research institutes and four (4) public national hospitals. The training was held from 16-20 June, 2014 at the Silver Springs Hotel, Nairobi.

By way of objectives, by the end of the workshop participants were expected to:

1. Articulate the role, mandate and  National Guidelines of Institutional Ethics and Research Committee for Kenya
2. Conduct critical review of qualitative and quantitative research proposals
3. Build capacity of other researchers and postgraduate students in the writing and review of research proposals
4. Analyze the implications of emerging issues in research ethics
5. Observe animal rights in research
6. Observe the rights of vulnerable groups
7. Adhere to the guidelines of management of samples
8. Adhere to quality assurance standards in qualitative and quantitative research

 

The chief guest during the opening ceremony was the acting Chief Executive Officer, NACOSTI, Dr. Moses Rugut who was represented by Dr. Simon Langat, the Chief Science Secretary, NACOSTI. In his message, the CEO pointed out that education and research are important determinants of the ability to create a knowledge-based economy and research cannot grow without strong and empowered ERCs.

He also noted that the workshop will go a long way in providing the requisite knowledge and skills of ERC members in reviewing the science of the proposals submitted to them and how that links up with ethical issues so that at the end, the approval given is comprehensive enough to ensure that the research conducted, the analysis of the data and the conclusions made meets the highest standards possible.

Also present during the opening ceremony was the Principal, College of Health Sciences, Prof. Isaac O. Kibwage who emphasized the critical role played by ERCs in maintaining highest standards possible in the conduct of research and hence the importance of the training workshop which was the first ever to be conducted in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

The participants highly rated the workshop and suggested that it should be offered regularly and strongly recommended that other ERC members should benefit from similar training.

During the closing ceremony, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Production and Extension, UoN (DVC RPE), Prof. Lucy Irungu thanked the three institutions led by College of Health Sciences, UoN who made this long overdue training workshop a reality. She emphasized the critical role played by research as the pillar and driving force behind the knowledge economy for any country and particulary in our setup.

For this to be fully realized, ERC members who are charged with the sole mandate of providing the requisite ethical and scientfic review and approval must have the required competencies hence the need for strategies to ensure that the training workshop is offered regurlarly.

EAHPEA CONFERENCE

A total of six participants from PRIME- K presented abstracts at the Eastern Africa Health Professional Educators’ Association (EAHPEA) held in Kampala on June 11-13, 2014 at Africana Hotel.

The six participants were the 5 PRIME – K participants (Dr. Minnie Kibore, Collins Owek, Raphael Kinuthia Wycliffe Ndege and Susan Wanja) and a seed recipient from Kenyatta University, Mary Mururi.

The theme of conference of the conference was "Strengthening Systems for Health Professionals' Education. "

All the six prime-k members who participated in the conference registered as members of the EAHPEA. Two of the PRIME-K members, Dr. Minnie Kibore and Mr. Collins Owek chaired sessions in day two and three of conference respectively.

The objective of the PRIME – K team was to disseminate PRIME-K program outcomes to the rest of the world.