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Training in youth-friendly service provision improves nurses’ competency level in the Great Lakes Region

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

This survey investigates whether relevant training and availability of guidelines improve self-reported competencies of nurses in the provision of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services in South-Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.

Methods

A quantitative baseline survey was conducted among nurses in randomly selected health facilities. Nurses providing youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services were asked to self-rate their competencies with regards to technical knowledge, clinical, and communication skills. In South-Kivu, Burundi, and Rwanda, 135, 131, and 99 nurses were interviewed, respectively.

Results

Overall differences of service and guideline availability and self-rated competencies can be observed between the three countries. In two countries, more than one in five nurses considered themselves to be only somewhat or not confident to counsel young people. Nurses from Rwanda showed the highest level of competencies followed by Burundi and South-Kivu. Lack of training in youth-friendly health services or family planning showed significant associations with reporting feeling somehow or not competent.

Conclusions

The lack of training, supervision, and guidelines expressed by the nurses is of great concern. Competency-based training in youth-friendly health services is an important approach in improving nurses’ competency level.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

    Carine Weiss, Jana Gerold & Sonja Merten

  2. Swiss Centre for International Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

    Yajna Elouard & Jana Gerold

  3. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Carine Weiss, Yajna Elouard, Jana Gerold & Sonja Merten

Authors
  1. Carine Weiss
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  2. Yajna Elouard
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  3. Jana Gerold
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  4. Sonja Merten
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonja Merten.

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Ethical approval

A steering committee was established in each country for approval of the survey instrument and procedure, which included staff from the respective Ministries of Health. Ethical approval for this study was received by the Ethical Commission of North-Western and Central Switzerland on 31 October 2013. The DRC evaluation protocol received ethical approval in December 2013. Ethical approval by the Burundi National Ethics Committee was obtained on 14 January 2014 and statistical approval by the Ministry of Finances and Economic Development Planning (Visa No. VS201402CNIS) was obtained on 4 March 2014. The Rwanda evaluation protocol received ethical approval in March 2014 from the Rwanda National Ethics Commission (RNEC) and statistical approval from the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda on 22 April 2014. In addition, authorization to access health facilities was granted by the Ministry of Health in each country.

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Weiss, C., Elouard, Y., Gerold, J. et al. Training in youth-friendly service provision improves nurses’ competency level in the Great Lakes Region. Int J Public Health 63, 753–763 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1106-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1106-6

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