PROJECT NAME: COVID-19 VACCINE ADMINISTRATION AND DATA CAPTURE TRAINING FOR PRIVATE HEALTH FACILITIES IN UGANDA. FUNDER: USAID/ UHSS

BACKGROUND.

Through a grant from the USAID Uganda Health Systems Strengthening (UHSS) Activity, UHF worked through the city health authorities to identify and select private health facilities offering the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EIP) services, reporting into the DHIS2, with functional fridges and having health workers designated as vaccinators among their staff.

These facilities completed a checklist, and through the USAID UHSS grant would be trained to offer COVID-19 vaccination services and capture the data into the national reporting system EPIVAC. Those that were unable to meet the pass mark of the checklist but were nominated by the city or district leadership to be trained would be supported by UHF through the USAID UHSS grant to meet the required standard depending on the gaps identified and were still enrolled in the training cohorts. All identified private facilities following the training would apply to the city authorities for approval to collect COVID-19 vaccines from the district vaccine stores.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the project was to equip private sector health workers with knowledge and skills on COVID-19 vaccine administration, and how to capture the administered vaccine data into the EPIVAC database. At the end of the raining the participating frontline health workers should be equipped to;

  1. Describe the pathogen (SARS-CoV-2) and corona virus disease.
  2. Explain cold-chain requirements, storage, handling principals for various delivery contexts and describe options/ procedures for waste disposal.
  3. Describe the process of COVID-19 vaccine administration and identify infection prevention and control measures that should be used during vaccination sessions.
  4. Differentiate between the administration of the various COVID-19 vaccines available in Uganda namely; Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Sinopharm and Moderna while understanding the process of mixing these vaccines.
  5. Identify an adverse event following immunization and explain how to report AEFI following COVID-19 vaccinations.
  6. Recognize recording and registration forms and explain how to track defaulters.
  7. Demonstrate effective and individualized communications about COVID-19 vaccination.

SELECTION OF FACILITIES CRITERIA

The private health facilities were selected against a criterion set by the MOH to identify facilities that conduct EPI services and have functional vaccine fridges and designating health workers as vaccinators.

The trainings also required the selection of participants from three types of health workers per facility; one nurse or mid-wife designated as vaccination officer, one clinician that supports the efforts of identifying, tracking and management of AEFIs and one data clerk to capture and report data on COVID-19 vaccination.

The Ministry of Health approved the WHO standard COVID-19 curriculum and materials were delivered by trainers from the city health authority teams.

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE OF TRAININGS

The activity targeted one hundred twenty-nine (129) private facilities selected in 11 cities; Arua, Entebbe, Fort Portal, Gulu, Hoima, Jinja, Lira, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara and Soroti.

The trainings were in person and lasted two 92 days per city with ten (10) hours from 8am to 5pm each day with an exception of Entebbe where the training lasted for 3 days.

TRAINING BENEFITS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Of the 129 targeted facilities, 110 participated in the trainings across the 11 cities giving a total of 312 participants trained in COVID-19 vaccination and 109 trained in Data Capture (EPIVAC and SPT)

203 health workers (67 males and 136 females) were oriented on administration of six COVID-19 vaccines, the mix and matching of different vaccines, vaccine estimation, receiving, handling, storage, waste management, organizing COVI-19 sessions, AEFI monitoring, data management and micro-planning.

109 Data clerks (47 males and 62 females) nominated from the facilities were trained on routine data reporting, the EPIVAC system and SPT to report COVID-19 vaccination data from their respective facilities.

The UHF team established city level WhatsApp groups and allocated a focal person to each city to support the facility approval process, reinforce and strengthen the relationship with the city leadership and district health teams.

The training highlighted challenges related to quality of care to be addressed under the USAID UHSS Activity grant through the application of the Self-Regulatory Quality Improvement System (SQIS).