Evaluation of the Institutionalization of Family Planning/ Reproductive Health Inservice Training in Bolivia

Beginning in 1992, JHPIEGO worked in close collaboration with the Bolivia Ministry of Health (MOH) to develop an integrated family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) training network throughout the country. The focus of the assistance was the establishment of nine national training centers (NTCs) for inservice training conducted by physician-nurse teams and located at departmental maternity hospitals in departmental capitals. By 2000, the government of Bolivia and other stakeholders had shifted the training emphasis to preservice education efforts. JHPIEGO preservice assistance focused on improving FP/RH education in three medical and nine nursing schools, and the role of the training teams at the NTCs moved toward supporting the preservice education efforts. JHPIEGO and the MOH implemented a Level 3 training evaluation between 2000 and 2001 to determine the retention rate of trained providers in the MOH system, to assess the impact of training on job performance and the institutionalization of the FP/RH inservice training system, and to determine needs for the preservice education initiative. [publisher’s description]