Experience of an entrant on the Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program, Laboratory Leadership Programme
Author: Leah Naluwagga Baliruno, Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program, Laboratory Leadership Programme
My Journey so far
The Laboratory Leadership Programme is a two-year part-time US CDC-funded public health fellowship program implemented by the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) at the MOH. The program which is the first of its kind in Uganda enrolled her first cohort of six fellows this year (January 2023). All fellows have a laboratory background and a Master’s degree in various health disciplines.
On 16th January 2023, the programme started off with didactic sessions, which are scheduled for every quarter. They are taught by instructors from Uganda, South Africa, and the United States of America. Among the many modules taught were; the laboratory’s role in outbreak investigation, human resource management, financial management, and logistics management. The sessions were capped off by presentations of proposals for continuous improvement projects conducted.
As part-time fellows, we continue to work at our different jobs, which is quite the balancing act. We are supported by our workplace site and US CDC mentors and we also keep in touch with some of our instructors and the programme coordinator. This helps to keep us on track with the programme deliverables we have to achieve. We have also been fortunate enough to interact with various leaders in the laboratory field from whom I have learned a great deal.
We have also had the opportunity to go to various workshops and meetings. I specifically attended one where I worked with a team of subject matter experts from the Laboratory Pillar to customise World Health Organisation Ebola Virus training materials, tailoring them to suit Uganda’s specific needs.
On the 17th of April, the Laboratory Leadership Fellows, Cohort 2023 together with the Field Epidemiology Fellows, Cohort 2023 were deployed to carry out a joint outbreak anthrax outbreak investigation in Ibanda District. It was a great learning experience to see how the laboratory teams can work with field epidemiologists, and it was equally exciting to see how well the laboratory activities consolidated the outbreak investigation findings. It also showed me the power of teamwork and team building, and new friendships were made, that will hopefully last a lifetime.
As time flies by so fast; and the journey demands a lot of hard work and dedication; we continue on, very excited to see what the future holds.
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