Health officers in Morobe Province took part in a week-long risk management and community engagement (RCCE) training.
The recent training, which was facilitated by World Vision and partners, saw district health managers, nursing officers and outgoing clinicians from the nine districts of Morobe Province take part.
This was the Morobe Provincial Training of Trainers workshop on RCCE conducted due to the high hesitancy rate in healthcare workers not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
The workshop’s focus was to get the training modules, ensure the participants were familiarised with what they were taught to relay the same information to their colleagues back in the districts, how well they can liaise with each other and understand the science of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine.
It was raised in the workshop that even healthcare workers have their own set of beliefs, which can prove to be a barrier.
Markham District health manageress, health extension officer Veronica Wafi, on behalf of the participants, thanked World Vision, its partners and facilitators for the training.
She outlined that they have now been equipped with new knowledge that will give them the confidence to disseminate and address an emerging disease like COVID-19; a situation that is new to the country, communities and even healthcare workers.
Acting Director for Public Health, Kelly Mesere, challenged the participants to be confident when conducting trainings to their colleagues at the district level, while taking into account the best method of training that is more applicable to them.
Mesere also thanked the districts’ healthcare workers for their response to the COVID-19 surge.
He said Morobe has done extremely well in terms of planning, response, reporting, surveillance, case management and the response to communities, despite many challenges.
This, he added, was because of all the efforts by the healthcare workers put into working in partnership to address COVID-19 in the province.