Lessons Learnt Delivering a Novel Infectious Diseases National Training Programme to Timor-Leste’s Primary Care Workforce

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Timor-Leste is a lower-middle-income country in Southeast Asia. To control the significant local threat from infectious diseases, it is imperative to strengthen the knowledge and practice capabilities of the primary care workforce. Methods: We report and reflect on the development and delivery of a national training programme in infectious diseases called the Advancing Surveillance and Training to Enhance Recognition of Infectious Diseases (ASTEROID) programme, developed by the medical non-governmental organisation (NGO) Maluk Timor and other Timorese stakeholders. The 1-week training course delivered by local doctors is multi-modal, combining lectures with educational videos, interactive sessions and a mobile application. The ongoing training was delivered to every Timorese municipality in the participants’ place of work and involved 540 healthcare professionals from 37 facilities. Training covered infectious diseases most relevant to the Timorese workforce, and focused on disease detection, management, prevention (including infection prevention and control issues) and notification. Findings: Multiple choice question (MCQ) assessment during the training has shown an average improvement in test scores from 45% to 64%, improving to 71% and 79% at 3-and 12-month follow-up respectively. The programme has been well-received, with participants appreciating the use of local specialists in video content, the tailoring of content to the local context and the variety of educational methods. Difficulties have been faced when it comes to delivering adequate content in a week-long format to a workforce which has not previously received significant professional development. Conclusions: This approach could provide a model for delivering training to national healthcare workforces in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) and could be further refined on the basis of the lessons detailed here.