Arba Minch University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences in collaboration with Lund University and KNCV - Tuberculosis Foundation, Netherlands offered 5-day training on complex interventions of pediatric healthcare with a due focus on children and adolescents with long-term illness in Ethiopia, from February 27 to March 03, 2023. Click here to see more Pictures.
Opening the training, AMU Academic Affairs Vice president, Dr. Alemayhu Chufamo said, maternity and pediatric cases are the major health concerns especially in the third world countries and it accounts for the major mortality rate. According to Dr. Alemayhu, human interventions in the environment and other technological effects make this world more unpredictable and prone to various unexpected health problems like COVID 19. Complexities of such problems in human health, surely need complex interventions to get a holistic understanding of the problem and get remedies, he underlined.
He further adds as such collaborations are vital for the exchange of technology, knowledge and wisdom, and skills, AMU, as Research University, is committed to strengthen further collaborations in areas of teaching-learning, research, capacity building, and tech-transfer and adaption.
Delegate for Chief Executive Director and Chief Academic Director for College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mr Teklu Teshome, Assistant Professor, in his welcoming remark said, as part of capacity building, the program on hand with Lund University and KNCV best fits our purpose and gives us hope of our future prospects of educating more staffs at PhD level to be more competent both nationally and globally, he noted. According to Mr Teklu, due to collaboration with Lund University, two AMU academic staffs have PhD study opportunity. He also appreciated Mr. Abayneh Tunje, an AMU PhD candidate at Lund University, for his pivotal mediative role in arranging the collaborative training.
Professor Inger Kristensson-Hallström, from Lund University, in her part said, the purpose of the training is to increase knowledge about complex interventions in healthcare with a particular focus on research that includes children, adolescents and their families. The training was conducted using four modules consisting of two mandatory campus meetings at AMU and two online meetings as well. Involving children in research, planning, feasibility, evaluation, and implementation were the five subparts the training consisted of, she explained.
Dr. Degu Jerene, from KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, said the training was mainly focused on creating awareness among the trainees on the methods that could solve complex health problems through research. He also added that the training was focused on the conceptualization intending to build practical capacity to carry out research on complex health problems; it will also serve as a gateway for staffs planning for PhD studies and instrumentally benefits those pursuing their PhD studies in strengthening and enriching their study proposals.
PhD candidate at Lund University and Training Coordinator, Mr. Abayneh Tunje, recalled that his taking the same training at Addis Ababa University 5 years ago greatly changed his attitude towards research and helped him to get the opportunity to attend his PhD degree at Lund University, Sweden. He also noted he made unreserved effort to realize the same training in AMU in collaboration with Lund University where the training is given as a PhD Course. The training promotes and creates the capacity to enable research works to solve complex health problems rather than put on the shelf, he said.
Mrs. Sintayehu Abebe, Assistant Professor in Public Health said, during our 5 day training, we have learned new concepts about procedures, frameworks, theoretical perspectives, designs, and the stages in complex intervention research focusing on children and families. In addition, she said that the training course has highly inspired her to conduct research on complex interventions and enhanced her ability to search for research funds.
The other trainee, Mr. Dinkalem Getahun, Assistant professor in nursing said that he has learned important skills and practices that help him improve the research proposal he’s preparing currently as he is pursuing his PhD in Public Health in AMU.
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