Continuing distance education: a capacity-building tool for the de-isolation of care professionals and researchers.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There are large disparities in access to health-care professionals (HCP) in low-income African countries, leading to imbalanced and suboptimal health delivery. Part of the difficulty is recruiting and retaining care professionals to work in isolated settings. AIM: To evaluate the impact of distance continuing education as a way to build capacity, increase satisfaction and enhance the performance of care professionals in these isolated health-care facilities. SETTING: Care professionals using RAFT (Telemedicine Network in French-speaking Africa) in isolated care facilities. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Within RAFT, an organizational framework and computer-based tools have been developed and evolved to provide useful, qualitative, applicable training material. PROGRAM EVALUATION: The activity, satisfaction, perceptions and impact of RAFT on remote health-care workers are being monitored. RAFT's potential to improve the recruitment, satisfaction and retention of care professionals in remote settings is widely recognized; however, the actual impact on the performance and quality of care remains to be demonstrated.