The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Tanzania is partnering with Boulder (Colorado) Community Hospital to build much-needed human resource capacity at the country’s regional laboratories.
Medical labs in Tanzania are faced with a severe shortage of qualified staff capable of supporting care and treatment services. Partners are conducting targeted training and technical assistance activities at zonal training centers associated with referral hospitals as a means of strengthening the capacity of laboratories throughout the country to provide high quality HIV diagnostic and disease management laboratory services.
Specifically, partners are training laboratory staff to use new equipment for diagnosing and managing HIV and implementing training and mentoring on standards of care, as well as quality control procedures, at regional laboratories. Partners are also providing professional development opportunities for laboratory staff and managers through national, regional, and international training.
The partnership has already completed assessments of 10 regional laboratories and the first laboratory volunteer placed through the Twinning Center’s Volunteer Healthcare Corps started in February, 2008.
In the future, volunteer placement will continue with new volunteers serving as laboratory mentors at regional labs fast tracked for technical assistance and support.
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