Ethiopia has made significant strides in improving maternal, newborn and child health throughout the country. Pregnancy related mortality has decreased from staggering 871 deaths per 100,000 live births to 412 from 2000 to 2016. Neonatal mortality has also showed significant improvement over the years, from 49 in 2000 to 29 in 2016, and is one of the indicators the country has achieved from the Millennium Development Goals. Coverage for skilled birth attendant, antenatal care and postnatal care has also significantly improved over the years. Just over a decade ago, the country had very limited number of health care providers, particularly midwives in its workforce. Although the number of midwives in the country is still below the WHO recommendation, there are now an estimated 12,000 midwives working throughout the country in all health care settings, primarily at the health center level, where over 80% of maternal and child health services are provided. The health care system is further strengthened by close to 40, 000 health extension workers that provide preventive and curative services at the community level and play a key role as frontline workers in the effort to reach every corner of the community to deliver quality health care.
However, despite all the progress and improvement, the quality of care at the facility level is not where it needs to be. There is still significant gap in knowledge and skill among health care providers joining the workforce. EmONC (2016) assessment findings show low levels of knowledge in key maternal and newborn care areas among midwives and nurses. For example, out of 3,193 midwives in the survey, only about 50% or less correctly identified care for complications during intrapartum period and for the newborn. Among nurses, the score was even lower. Although several in-service trainings are widely instituted with the goal of upgrading the knowledge and skill of health care providers, there needs to be a coordinated approach to improve the knowledge and skill of healthcare providers that can then translate into high quality care each mother and newborn receives at each encounter. One of the ways to do that is by implementing catchment based clinical mentoring and coaching using trained mentors.
It has been decided to recruit one national consultant to develop a national clinical mentor training material (participant/training manual, facilitator guide and power points) and a clinical mentorship pocket guide by incorporating all relevant topics, national and global technical updates and focusing on the key areas to address in clinical mentoring and coaching in consultation with FMOH.
The national consultant is expected to conduct the following activities:
Identify important resources for reference in consultation with MOH and members of the SMH TWG.
Identify key partners actively engaged in conducting catchment based clinical mentoring and coaching.
Prepare desk review and other relevant checklists to guide the training materials and pocket guide development process.
Desk review all relevant national and other countries/international/regional documents on the subject.
Whenever necessary conduct key in-depth interview with key partners and experts.
Come up with a zero-draft version of the clinical mentoring and coaching training materials and pocket guide.
Conduct regular discussion and feedback sessions with the SMH TWG members and other key partners on the zero draft and subsequent versions of the training materials and pocket guide.
Incorporate comments, feedbacks and all other important ideas forwarded from technical working group meetings.
Produce last version of the national catchment based clinical mentoring and coaching training package & pocket guide and submit it to JSI/USAID Transform: Primary health care and FMOH in both electronic and hard copies.
Background qualification in medicine/health with clinical/public health specialty and other additional relevant trainings.
A practical experience in developing training materials, guidelines and tools for reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health programs.
Experience in capacity building of reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health programs at pre and in-service levels.
Minimum of 10 years experience working in the Ethiopian health system.
Excellent report writing and communication skill.