I-TECH Tanzania led the development of the task-sharing policy guidelines for Health Sector Services approved in 2016 as well as the policy’s operational plan. While task-sharing is a widely known HIV service delivery efficiency strategy, still there is continues gaps between national strategies and actual implementation at the site-level [1,2].
From 2018, I-TECH Tanzania, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, is implementing a nursing efficiency project with the goal of increasing the capacity of select high-volume ART sites in Tanzania to implement process improvement approaches to increase efficiency of antiretroviral therapy (ART) services delivered by nurses. Data generated from this project is expected to inform process improvement strategies in all the target sites and further inform effective implementation of Nurse-initiated Management of ART (NIMART). I-TECH will also support capacity building of mid-level providers by converting the current Differentiated HIV Service Delivery Models (SDMs) orientation package to a distance education approach with the goal of expanding its reach and reducing costs associated with the implementation of the course, directly supporting the scale-up of SDMs and task-sharing.
- Smith J, Odera DN, Chege D, Muigai EN, Patnaik P, Michaels-Strasser S, et al. Identifying the Gaps: An Assessment of Nurses’ Training, Competency, and Practice in HIV Care and Treatment in Kenya. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 2016,27:322-330
- Tsui S, Denison JA, Kennedy CE, Chang LW, Koole O, Torpey K, et al. Identifying models of HIV care and treatment service delivery in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia using cluster analysis and Delphi survey. BMC Health Services Research 2017,17:811.