“For most of us nurse tutors, the THANE training is the first HIV/AIDS training we’ve ever had. It’s opened our eyes to the dramatic changes in HIV/AIDS services around the country. Nurses are on the frontline in hospitals and health centers, so if nurse tutors are able to better prepare their students on HIV/AIDS, the quality of services will increase considerably.”

     Angasyege Kibona, master trainer and nurse tutor at Muhimbili 

     Diploma Nursing School.

Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences and the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing are collaborating to strengthen the capacity of Tanzania’s 62 nursing schools to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to provide quality HIV/AIDS services, as well the life skills they need to safeguard their own health and wellbeing by practicing safer sexual behaviors.

Partners developed and are implementing the Tanzania HIV/AIDS Nursing Education (THANE) Project, a comprehensive training package with a training-of-trainers component that integrates HIV/AIDS care and life skills content into pre-service curricula at nursing schools throughout Tanzania. The THANE Project is helping to ensure that graduating nurses are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to provide high quality healthcare services to people living with HIV or AIDS.

Partners also assisted the Nursing Unit of Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to develop new curricula for certificate and diploma programs under the government’s Primary Health Services Development Program. This program is designed to increase the country’s healthcare workforce by — among other things — shortening the duration of pre-service education for selected professions, including nursing. To this end, partners conducted a five-week curricula development workshop in late 2007 for some 25 nursing tutors and experts to ensure relevant HIV/AIDS content was incorporated into the new curricula.

To date, partners have conducted 14 zonal training-of-trainers workshops, resulting in 352 nurse tutors being trained to deliver the THANE resource tools. Based on pre- and post-test analysis, participants increased their knowledge of HIV/AIDS subject matter by nearly 20 percent and also reported a significant increase in confidence in their ability to teach the new HIV/AIDS content. In addition, 18 master trainers trained through the project helped facilitate zonal training workshops thus sharpening their subject matter knowledge and teaching skills.

In May 2009, partners began conducting orientation workshops designed to improve the quality of nursing education by bolstering nurse tutors’ understanding of THANE content and better ensure its integration into certificate and diploma programs in nursing. Initially, orientations will be held in three zones, training a cohort of 100 nurse tutors before being rolled out nationwide.

They are also helping to ensure the revised curricula and related materials — including the THANE resource tools — are being utilized in all of the country’s nursing schools and that national nursing examinations reflect the HIV/AIDS content. In addition, the partners plan to conduct site visits to each nursing school to observe training courses and evaluate how the HIV/AIDS content has been integrated into various aspects of nurse education, as well as evaluate the quality of instruction. During these visits, students will be interviewed to gauge their individual perceptions and thoughts on HIV/AIDS, along with how they are utilizing the life skills taught through the THANE resource tools.

Partners are also working with the Tanzania Nurses and Midwives Council and the National Nurses Association to help strengthen leadership in advocacy and quality assurance for nurses. To this end, they plan to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment in fall 2009.

Ongoing activities include refining the nurse training curriculum and increasing its availability to all relevant nurse training schools; finalizing the THANE resource tools; providing International Council of Nurses mobile libraries to three schools of nursing that have been identified as having limited resources; and developing a comprehensive impact evaluation plan that encompasses the partnership’s three major areas of focus:

• HIV/AIDS Education,
• Resource Support, and
• Revision and Dissemination of Nursing Curricula.