WHO-CAH, NFSD and Sirius AG conducted a 4-days workshop to beta test the ICATT training manager in Lusaka, Zambia. The workshop showed that ICATT can be effectively used as an IMCI training tool by health workers who had no or limited computer skills.
The workshop participants came from selected health centres, districts and the central level of the MOH in Zambia. The facilitators came from WHO/CAH/HQ, the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (NFSD) and Sirius AG.
The main objective of this particular activity was to test if health workers who had no or limited computer skills could use ICATT as an IMCI training tool. During the workshop the participants followed a step-wise approach with selected exercises to try and provide feedback on the training functions of ICATT.
In addition a session was conducted to receive feedback from the participants on the use of ICATT as an IMCI training tool at national and peripheral levels.
41 technical findings were collected during the beta test. The most important findings are the following:
- To be able to train health workers with no or limited computer skills in IMCI using ICATT, there is a need to include a short session on basic computer skills in ICATT itself. However, even with limited computer skills, participants did not have many problems and enjoyed "going through" the current version of ICATT and exploring the existing possibilities of ICATT. This major finding opens the possibility to tailor ICATT-based training, using various ways of training (classroom, distant learning etc.), for different audiences, with or without computer skills. Of course, access to computers is still needed.
- The issues of hands-on training (clinical skills, counselling, role-plays etc.) and facilitation will still have to be addressed as ICATT itself can only impart information and knowledge but not the skills themselves. Different kinds of facilitation for different training settings need to be explored including ways to check trainees' progress. A start will have to be made to develop and field-test a facilitator's guide for ICATT modelled on the principles of the classical 11-day IMCI course.