Maternal and newborn health outcomes are closely tied to the quality of care mothers receive. Yet, in Kenya, there is a gap in cost-effective training to improve and sustain life-saving emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) skills. Comprehensive training, supportive supervision, and coaching are effective in giving nurses and midwives the skills to avert or mitigate life-threatening pregnancy and postpartum complications, and improve clinical performance and motivation.
How this works
Since 2015, Jacaranda has partnered with county governments and public hospitals across Kenya to deploy MENTORS, a low-cost mentorship program that equips frontline obstetric providers with the sustained skills to deliver life-saving care.
The program is based on a ‘training of trainers’ model, whereby Jacaranda Lead Mentors train and support a cohort of government nurse midwives to become maternal and newborn health quality of care champions within their respective facilities – increasing our opportunity for scale and long-term sustainability. Nurses complement their in-person training via DELTA, Jacaranda’s mHealth learning tool, which offers essential EmONC modules remotely via WhatsApp.
program mentors actively cascading skills to their peers in facilities
frontline government nurses trained in basic and emergency care
high volume health facilities actively partnered with the program
of program nurses have improved confidence and competence to manage emergencies
that helps facilities resolve system-level bottlenecks hampering the delivery of lifesaving care. We help county health teams see where quality gaps exist through our dashboards, and then co-develop solutions for how to plug them in facilities.
Our EmONC training package is designed to be affordable, sustainably integrated into government budgets, and scaled through government leadership.
In Kenya, county governments are increasingly allocating their budgets towards the program’s running costs, charting a path for long-term sustainability and government ownership.
MENTORS is one fifth of the cost of similar five day training programs in Kenya
of MENTORS running costs are currently covered by Kenyan county governments
Head Nurse Alice Wandere has seen significant shifts in the way her colleagues are handling postpartum hemorrhage cases since Jacaranda’s MENTORS program was introduced at the Kajiado County Referral Hospital.
Find Us
788 Jabavu Rd Nairobi Nairobi County Kenya
Disclaimer
This website discusses pregnancy and motherhood. While we use the term “mother” to mirror the language of the community we are collaborating with, we also acknowledge that not all pregnant people identify as “mothers.” We would like to recognize that pregnancy and motherhood can be experienced by people of all genders.
