An in-country model of workforce support for trained mid-level eye care workers in Papua new Guinea and Pacific Islands
Brûlé, J.; Tousignant, B.; Nicholls, G.; Pearce, M.G.
New Zealand Medical Journal 130(1460): 83-86
2017
ISSN/ISBN: 1175-8716 PMID: 28796774 Document Number: 693512
To alleviate the significant burden of vision impairment and blindness in low-resource settings, addressing the shortage in human resources in eye care is one of the fundamental strategies. With its postgraduate training programmes, The Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand (FHFNZ) aims to increase workforce capacity in the Pacific Island countries and territories and Papua New Guinea. This paper presents an in-country model to offer support to graduates, an essential element to retain them in the workforce and ensure they are able to perform the tasks they were trained to do. FHFNZ has designed a workforce support programme employing a standardised process, allowing comparable reporting and providing data for FHFNZ to evaluate its training programmes, outputs as well as professional recognition and integration in the workplace.