Kenya is witnessing a rapid and alarming rise in cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs), significantly straining its under-resourced healthcare workforce. Launched a year ago, PEP in Kenya strengthens medical training to help health professionals better manage CMDs.
CMDs, a subset of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) that include conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, are the leading cause of death globally, with their prevalence expected to continue rising.
Compounding the problem, Kenya, like the rest of Africa, is also facing a critical shortage of healthcare workers.
In response to these challenges, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Health in Kenya and six African-based institutions, launched the Partnership for Education of Health Professionals (PEP) in Kenya in January 2024. This initiative aims to address the growing disease burden by strengthening the education of health professionals in CMDs.
Dr George Kimathi from Amref Health Africa says PEP is an important initiative, because it helps bridge some of the workforce gaps that exist in Kenya.
“By increasing the capacity of training institutions, PEP addresses the predicted shortage of about six million healthcare workers [across the continent] by 2030, which is crucial for achieving universal coverage. It ensures that faculty and learners acquire the necessary competencies to deliver quality care, aligning their skills with the health needs of the population. Additionally, PEP includes a vital research component, ensuring that training is relevant to population needs.”
PEP focuses on the medical training colleges and educational institutions that educate current and future nurses and clinical officers. One such institution is the Kijabe College of Health Sciences, which has been training health professionals for over three decades.
The College’s Principal, Dr Peris Kariuki, emphasises the importance of enhancing the curriculum to improve patient outcomes.
“Ensuring our graduates are market-ready and well-equipped with the knowledge and skills to manage patients with cardiometabolic diseases will lead to better patient outcomes,” she said.
Nursing student Robinson Muturi’s decision to study at the college was partly motivated by a desire to learn more about chronic diseases prevalent in the local community.
“Some of my relatives suffer from CMDs, such as diabetes and hypertension. I wanted to learn [more about] these conditions, so that I can be able to help them back at home and try to prevent the conditions from being more rampant all around the villages and also in the people in the community,” he explained.
A collaborative approach to strengthening education of health professionals
In the first year of PEP in Kenya, all partners collaborated to develop and roll-out tools to assess training needs across medical training colleges in Kenya for six health cadres. The assessment has holistically focused on the quality of the CMD education, the capacity for delivering online and blended learning and for conducting high quality research.
“At the moment, there is not a big emphasis on CMDs even in the curriculum, so one of the things that PEP is actually focused on doing is ensuring we have a pre-service curriculum such that that produces fit-for-purpose healthcare providers. These professionals will be ready to diagnose and manage CMDs, and they will also be knowledgeable about the risk factors. This way, they can advise community members on how to prevent or delay the onset of these conditions,” said Dr Catherine Karekezi, Executive Director of the NCD Alliance Kenya.
“By taking the time to fully understand the current gaps in CMD education, the first year of PEP has laid the foundation to strengthen the capacity of education institutions to provide competency based CMD education and clinical training,” says Dorothy Owegi, a Kenya-based Senior Program Manager at the Novo Nordisk Foundation. She continues:
“Looking ahead to year two, PEP in Kenya will update CMD education by developing and piloting short courses for nurses, clinical officers, and community health assistants using online and blended learning. This programme’s success could lead to future integration into the national curriculum and scalability to universities in Kenya.”
According to Dr Catherine Karekezi from the NCD Alliance Kenya, “Once PEP is in the next phase, which will be starting this year, ultimately, I believe we’ll end up with a curriculum which will enable us to have fit-for-purpose medical professionals who will be working in the communities and will be able to diagnose and manage and also to prevent cardiometabolic diseases.
“And because they will be working at much lower-level facilities, this treatment and care will become more accessible to the community, hopefully at an affordable cost. This will enhance equitable access to the prevention, treatment, and care of cardiometabolic diseases,” she said.
Dr George Kimathi envisions that the long-term impact of PEP in Kenya will be transformative.
“When we build the capacity of training institutions, which we are doing through PEP, and those training institutions are able to equip learners with the necessary competencies and skills to address cardiometabolic diseases, we then expect that the services those learners provide when they get employed, in terms of prevention and management of cardiometabolic diseases, will lead to improved health outcomes. This means reduced morbidity and mortality from cardiometabolic diseases, which is significant.
“That’s a long-term goal we see from CMDs. Additionally, because PEP is a long-term partnership, it means that these institutions will have the capacity to continue training more professionals for years to come, resulting in longer-term benefits and impact for populations in the region,” said Dr George Kimathi.