ASPIRE (AIDS Services, Prevention, Intervention, Research and Education) is the international education and training arm of the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital. Over the past three years, CIDRZ has collaborated with ASPIRE to build local capacity and enhance the quality of HIV/AIDS care in Zambia. The program utilizes experienced HIV physicians and nurse practitioners to provide culturally sensitive, Zambian appropriate, on-site clinical mentoring and training.
Core Services
Capacity Building
- Support and supplement existing national HIV/AIDS training programs
- Develop care delivery systems (patient flow, community linkages)
- Train nurses in the management of HIV/AIDS
- Primary patient care
- Program development and administration
Distance learning/consultation
- Regular clinical rounds and distance consultations via internet and email
Off site Professional development programÂ
- A 2 week program offered at UCSF for a restricted number of clinical staff
Medical Officer Training:
ASPIRE clinicians travel to Zambia 2 – 3 times per annum to work with local medical officers and focus on developing individual skills and knowledge, and improving the mentoring and training skills of local clinicians
The following are areas of focus:
- management of complex clinical problems
- problem solving strategies and accessing clinical resources
- training of trainer and mentoring skills
- designing and development of clinical training programs
CO and Nurse Training:
The ASPIRE clinicians and nurse practitioners also provide training for CIDRZ nurses and clinical officers and, more recently, district nurses. Developing competences within these groups not only emphasizes their own skills, but the ability to mentor, train, and supervise others in the independent management of stable patients on ARVs.
The following are areas of focus:
- initiation of patients on ARVs
- basic triage
- acute management of simple problems
Professional development program
Eight CIDRZ staff, including 5 medical officers, 1 clinical officer and 2 implementation/ quality assurance nurses and one district medical officer attended a 2 week professional development program in San Francisco. The curriculum included both didactic lectures and in-clinic mentoring and attachments. The visit allowed staff to gain further clinical knowledge, to see different pathology and treatment options, to experience an antiretroviral program in the first world and to develop linkages with clinicians and specialist for future consultation.
In the future the program will focus on strengthening the skills of staff already trained, developing monitoring and evaluation tools and implementing these external monitoring and evaluation programs.