Project’s aim
The Medical Education Development Project (MED Project) is implemented in Ukraine by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) under financial support of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The 4-year first phase of the project implementation started in December 2018 and will last till the end of 2022. The budget for the 4-year implementation phase amounts to CHF 4.968 million.
The project is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine following those priorities which are set to ensure the medical education is effective and corresponds to existing health and health services needs of Ukraine.
It is widely recognized that the availability of appropriately trained, well resourced, equipped, deployed and motivated workers in the health sector are critical factors for delivering quality health care interventions that will improve population health outcomes. So, the overall goal of the Medical Education Development Project is to provide quality care to the Ukrainian population by improving the medical education system for primary healthcare workforce.
A focus of the project is placed on the primary health care (PHC) workforce – doctors and nurses, as front-line health care workers, and on enhancing capacities and skills of the managerial personnel.
The project covers all levels of medical education – undergraduate education, postgraduate education (internatura), as well as continuous professional education, providing expert, legislative and educational support in the process of quality improvement of education for primary health care providers.
Goals and outcomes
As the key goal of the Medical Education Development Project is to provide quality care to the Ukrainian population by improving the medical education system for primary healthcare workforce it supports the overall health system reform with appropriate human resources (HR) development.
This goal is going to be achieved through two exact outcomes:
Outcome 1: Strengthening professional capacities of primary healthcare staff (family doctors and nurses), through improving the national medical education system for PHC workforce, according to the reform priorities set by the MoH.
Within this outcome, the project will support curricula revision, including improvement of clinical skills teaching and the build-up of simulation-based skills training, introduction of modern teaching approaches, learning management systems and the fostering of research capacities, so health professionals are adequately prepared to meet health and health services needs of Ukraine. These interventions will cover both, the undergraduate and postgraduate levels of medical education, including continuous professional development.
All activities will be implemented in three pilot medical universities and three educational institutions for nurses that were preselected during the inception phase of the project.
Pilot medical universities:
- Bukovina State Medical University;
- Ternopil State Medical University;
- Kharkiv National Medical University;
Nursing educational institutions:
- Lviv Institute of Nursing and Laboratory Medicine;
- Zhytomyr Medical Institute;
- Rivne medical academy.
Where it’s appropriate, the project will collaborate and strengthen professional associations as ‘content providers’ and professional entities to set standards and to guide the development of training materials and support implementation of interventions.
Outcome 2: Better governance of primary health care (including HR) and healthcare management capacity building, contributing to enhanced healthcare system performance and efficiency.
Within Outcome 2, the governance and management of the medical education system will be improved. The project is going to support health workforce planning, management training, regional exchanges. In order to develop managerial trainings, the Summer School on health care system transformation will be supported with transformation into full master program in Healthcare Management. The project will also support the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in implementing research for targeted reform policy setting, and in elaborating the legal basis for primary care and medical education reform.
Key beneficiaries of the project are: students and staff of the pilot educational institutions, family doctors and family nurses, managers of the primary health care institutions, primary health care services users. Also, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the National Health Service (NHS), professional associations and local networks of doctors and nurses. The project also gives due attention to the three cross-cutting themes – gender, governance (foster accountability and anti-corruption measures, promotion of participative approaches) and conflict sensitive approach. These themes are seen as an integral part of the project’s activities and are taken into account while planning and implementing project activities.
To strengthen the expertise provided by the project, the technical assistance will be delivered by the implementing agency, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, as well as by key collaborating partners of this project: Maastricht University, School for Public Health and Primary Care. This partner will mainly support the development of management training capacity.
Institute for Nursing Science of the University of Basel (INS): the partner will assist in developing modalities for primary care provision including advanced nursing skills, facilitate the development of new advanced nursing training programs (focus on family medicine) including the development of curricula and the set-up of skills-based training centres.To strengthen the expertise provided by the project, the technical assistance will be delivered by the implementing agency, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, as well as by key collaborating partners of this project: