Number/percent of antenatal clinic staff trained in the control of malaria during pregnancy in the past 12 months

Number/percent of antenatal clinic staff trained in the control of malaria during pregnancy in the past 12 months

Number/percent of antenatal clinic staff trained in the control of malaria during pregnancy in the past 12 months

The number or percentage of health workers who, among all health workers providing antenatal services, have received training in the prevention and control of malaria in pregnancy (MIP) at the time of data collection, within the last calendar year. (Health workers who provide antenatal care are defined locally.)

As a percent, this indicator is calculated as:

(Number of antenatal clinic staff trained in the control of MIP in the past 12 months/ Total number of antenatal clinic staff during the same period) x 100

Data Requirement(s):

Training records. Data can be disaggregated by sex, type of staff (e.g. nurse, doctor, midwife), type of facility (public, private, non-governmental, community-based), and by district and urban rural location.

If targeting and/or linking to inequity, classify trainees by areas served (poor/not poor) and disaggregate by area served.

Supervisory visits; training reports

If a routine reproductive health supervisory form exists, it should be modified to include:

  • the number of antenatal clinic staff and other health workers; and
  • the number of staff trained in the control of MIP in the past 12 months.

If no supervisory form exists, it should be designed accordingly.

Successful control of MIP requires delivery of the recommended interventions by skilled, well-informed health workers in the facility. This process indicator is a proxy for the readiness of service providers to treat MIP.

Training of clinic staff in the prevention and control of malaria in pregnant women should, at a minimum, include guidelines for intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), effective case management, including referral when necessary, and counseling about the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). The training should also include data collection, analysis, interpretation and use for local decision-making. To avoid duplication of efforts, the training should be integrated as much as possible into predefined or existing curricula (e.g. pre-service and in-service programs) or other Making Pregnancy Safer training orientation courses. It should also be a part of malaria control training programs for implementing new antimalarial drug policies.

Frequent supportive supervision might be needed to reinforce knowledge and skills acquired during training. The frequency of supervisory visits is often determined locally; however, it is recommended that at least one supervisory visit per facility per year be ensured. A system should be developed for training new staff in case of high staff turnover.

The denominator might be difficult to determine, as some countries have limited information on the pool of human resources available in various facilities, and transfers of personnel between facilities are frequent. In this case, gathering a number rather than a percentage should be considered an adequate indicator on its own, but should not be used to compare health facilities.

Also, the indicator does not provide any information about the quality of the training or the quality of services provided by the trained staff.

training, newborn (NB), malaria, safe motherhood (SM)

WHO.  Malaria in Pregnancy: Guidelines for measuring key monitoring and evaluation indicators.  2007.