The team of 15 trainees from the districts of Gulu, Lira, Moroto, Soroti, Mbale, Masaka, Mubende and Fortportal Regional Referral Hospital. The trainees included 3 medical records officers, 3 medical officers, 2 biostatisticians, 3 laboratory technologists, 1 veterinarian, 1 monitoring and evaluations officer, 1 regional epidemiologist, 1 quality improvement officer and 1 Infection Prevention and Control focal person. Some of these also support the regional Emergency Operation Centers in their regions which serve as the regional coordination centers for public health emergencies.
Field Epidemiology Training Program – Intermediate (FETP-I) is a regional level tier of the CDC-founded FETP pyramid model. FETP-Intermediate is a supervised, on-the-job, competency-based training and service (workforce development) program to improve field epidemiologic capacity at the regional level. It aims to build competencies in surveillance, data analysis and interpretation, outbreak investigation, communication, and mentorship. The 9-month training involves residential trainings interspersed with on-job field projects during which participants return to workstations and conduct job relevant projects to concretize what they have learned.
The classroom trainings are 1-2 weeks long and field intervals run for 6-7 weeks. During the field intervals, participants undertake projects with guidance from mentors. At the end of the training participants are awarded a certificate.
While sharing what impact the training program has had on them, many of the graduates attested to improvement in data analysis, interpretation, communication, ability to conduct outbreak investigations, share findings with the management team of their facilities and importantly making clear and concise presentations during meetings.
The guest speakers encouraged the graduates to put into use the skills and competencies gained to ensure better surveillance and more prompt response to public health concerns.
The graduates were also encourage to publish the wonderful findings from all the analyses conducted so that the recommendation generated can be put to action.
The team of 15 puts the total number of FETP-Intermediate graduates at 59 since 2021