The need for rehabilitation of lost skills in health care delivery

Abstract

During the last 40 years or so when African nations started regaining their independence from colonial rule, vigorous programmes were initiated for education and training in all sectors of national development. The leaders of these independent nations set their goals on the elimination of ignorance, poverty and disease. Thus matters of health have been a priority over these years. Health care personnel have been trained in all the relevant areas such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and all other allied professions. However, the maximum utilisation of the trained health care manpower has not kept pace with the rapid needs of development in these nations. This deficiency has been compounded by the rapid advancements in medical science and technology. Thus in the under-utilisation of these graduates from tertiary educational institutions, the graduate becomes professionally obsolete due to the fact that he/she has not been adequately utilized, or due to lack of continuing education, or due to some othef reasons. The medical doctor, dentist, pharmacist, nurse, clinical officer or laboratory technologist may have lost the special skills that were acquired during college education and may therefore become professionally and functionally senescent and obsolete. So there is need to habilitate those skills in order to serve efficiently in the provision of health care. I am afraid that some of the personnel did not have sufficient background education and hence would not benefit from rehabilitation programmes, let alone training in newer technologies. Similarly, I dare say that in the university faculties and departments and polytechnics that educate and train the prospective health care personnel, many of the teaching staff would also require rehabilitation of their skills that may have become obsolete. There is also need for such rehabilitation in the health research institutes in order to provide the relevant answers for the solution of national health problems. Thus as we move into the next millennium, there is dire need to rehabilitate our health personnel in the skills that have been lost in order to re-train them to be able to apply contemporary methods of health care provision. In the present state of affairs, the use of modern technological methods are essential in providing health care because these new technologies are more effective and therefore ultimately more cost-effective. Hence the need for rehabilitation of lost skills as a pre notrequisite for re-training is a priority. I call on all the health policy makers as well as those who are concerned with the improvement of health care delivery to take some critical and decisive steps to ensure that health care providers are adequately educated and properly trained. Continuing medical education as well as continuing education in other health professions should incorporate rehabilitation of lost skills as well as retraining on newer and more appropriate methods for the provision of good quality health care delivery services are important and urgent. Continuing education therefore should be a condition for continued registration and certification if we are to achieve meaningful quality health care delivery.