The Nakuru County Department of Health has initiated a week-long practical skills-building programme for a group of healthcare workers from maternity facilities across the county to enhance their capacity to handle maternal child healthcare.
The initiative is aimed at addressing gaps identified through the weekly maternal and perinatal death audit reviews undertaken at health facilities.
The focus of the programme is on filling gaps within maternity and newborn care services through hands-on demonstrations, mentorship, simulations and continuous clinical support.
The department is counting on its consultants and experienced midwives to strengthen frontline capabilities through skills transfer, improved emergency response and enhanced maternal and newborn care across facilities.
The programme includes practical demonstrations on managing obstetric and newborn emergencies, newborn resuscitation, infection prevention and control, safe delivery practices, emergency response coordination and adherence to standard treatment protocols.
The training is being held at the Nakuru County Referral and Teaching Hospital (NCRTH) and is directly guided by trends identified in maternal and perinatal death audits, such as delays in the recognition and management of complications, referral challenges, documentation gaps and inconsistencies in clinical practice.
In her remarks, County Executive Committee Member for Health, Roselyn Mungai, briefed the healthcare providers on broader leadership initiatives being undertaken by the department, which extend beyond the training sessions.
These initiatives are structured around key pillars of health systems strengthening, including service delivery, human resources for health, health products and technologies, healthcare financing, health information systems and leadership and governance.
She urged the staff to adopt continuous learning, practise consistency, promote teamwork, uphold accountability, provide respectful maternity care and prioritise patient safety as part of ongoing efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths across Nakuru County.
The trainings come amidst Nakuru County’s efforts to improve Maternal, newborn and child health services under the Healthy Birth Initiative (HBI), which brings together the County’s Department of Health and the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
The initiative seeks to accelerate progress in reducing newborn deaths and improving birth outcomes by aligning policy, leadership, innovation and investment towards achieving Kenya’s maternal and newborn health targets by 2030.
The primary objective of HBI is to reverse the troubling national newborn mortality statistics and give every small and sick newborn a fair chance at life by providing mothers and babies with optimal care.
By Jane Ngugi
