Provider Capacity Strengthening

What is it?

Ensuring that there is a pool of well-trained family planning (FP) service providers to meet demand for FP is critical. Improving the competencies of FP service providers by delivering quality training and retraining ensures that the full method mix is available to potential clients.

Why is it important?

• Positive provider-client interactions can have a profound effect on uptake of voluntary family planning in a community and help ensure clients leave with their chosen family planning method.

Client-Provider Dialogue Approach

TCI supports states to conduct client-provider dialogues to address provider bias. Clients express their opinions about providers’ negative and positive behaviors. The client-provider dialogue approach enables family planning providers to understand their areas of bias that impact family planning service provision. The approach dispels myths and misconceptions and improves client-provider interactions, using view of others to improve and achieve behavior change communication. TCI uses a guide developed by NURHI to help facilitate this approach.

Competency-Based Trainings 

Based on the needs identified in the PIA and the activities put forward in the State-wide FP workplan, the State, Implementing Partners and TCI identify trainings aligned with the National Family Planning/Reproductive Health Service Protocols that they can support financially and technically. Working in close collaboration with Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), TCI provides this technical assistance. In most cases, State-level master trainers facilitate the training while ARFH and TCI provide oversight and supportive supervision. The following standardized family planning training courses are tailored to the needs of service providers and their current level of family planning training in a particular context.

Family Planning Training for Physicians and Nurses/Midwives is a 13-module training on a full range of family planning (FP) topics, including interpersonal communication and counseling, adolescent reproductive health, postpartum FP, quality of care, management information system, and infection prevention, as well as all of the methods, including long-acting reversible methods (LARCs). Participants are certified as family planning providers following post training supportive supervision.

In addition, more in-depth trainings are provided on LARCs:

• Manual for Training Doctors and Nurse/Midwives on LARC (Training Manual)
• Manual for Training Doctors and Nurse/Midwives on LARC (Reference book)
• Manual for the Training of Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWS -Trainers Manual)
• Manual for the Training of Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWS)

Additional trainings supported include:

Family Planning Refresher Training. This is a 5-day course for certified family planning providers who have completed the initial 4-week course in the previous three years. It focuses on counseling skills, long acting and permanent method, side effects management, and addressing myths and misconceptions.

Family Planning Interpersonal Communication and Counseling Skills Training. This is a 5-day training course for CHEWs. It focuses on information on all family planning methods (natural and modern), interpersonal communication skills, counseling skills, referrals, record keeping and mobilizing for family planning outreaches.

Family Planning Interpersonal Communication and Counseling Skills Training for Non-Clinical Provider. NURHI also developed and offers a 3-day training course for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians/assistants and patent medicine vendors (PMV) on family planning counseling, provision of non-clinical family planning methods, referrals for clinical methods, and record keeping.

DMPA-SC (Sayana Press®) training. The training presentation was developed by FHI 360 and PATH and adapted by the Federal Ministry of Health for the training of providers in collaboration with other implementing partners in Nigeria. The training provides background on the different types of injectables as well as provides participants with information on how to screen clients for eligibility, handle sharps safely, give an injection and counsel clients on self-injection.