Delivering sustainable continuing professional development in Uganda

Physiopedia recently met with professional associations in Uganda to discuss a collaboration for the provision of sustainable continuing professional development (CPD) in accordance with the directive of the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC).

Allied health professions (AHPs) in Uganda are regulated by the Allied Health Professionals Council (AHPC), who have a mandate for regulating, supervising and controlling the practice, education and training of AHPs, including their CPD requirements.

The recent meeting brought together several professional associations of Uganda, including Physiotherapy (PT), Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and Prosthetists and Orthotists (P&O). Herbert Omoding, Rachael Lowe and Yara Peterko from Physiopedia introduced the USAID-funded ReLAB-HS activities, in particular the International Rehabilitation Education and Training Toolkit (IRETT) and tools from the IRETT that support the provision of CPD. 

Ideas for collaboration to deliver CPD of international standards were discussed, including the opportunity for cost and time efficient interprofessional training activities utilising Physiopedia Plus (Plus) online courses together with in-person context-specific and practical training, involving international mentors to support training of local trainers, and accreditation of the training programmes to align with AHPC requirements.

There is great enthusiasm to work towards the joint goal of developing training opportunities for elevating standards of clinical practice – a need that has been clearly identified by individual rehabilitation professionals and rehabilitation organisations nationally.

 

This work is supported by the USAID funded Learning Acting Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems (ReLAB-HS) project and is not possible without the generous and committed contribution of the Leahy War Victims fund.

ReLAB-HS is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is implemented under cooperative agreement number 7200AA20CA00033. The consortium is managed by prime recipient, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.