A Distance Blended Learning Program to Upgrade the Clinical Competence of District Non-doctor Anesthesia Providers in Nepal

Background Across Nepal, anesthesia at a district level is provided mostly by non-doctor anesthesia providers (anesthesia assistants—AAs). Nepal’s Government recognized the need to sustain competence with continuous professional development and to upgrade 6-month trained working AAs to professional equivalence with the new national standard of 12-month training. As they are essential district health workers and AA clinical training sites are full, an innovative distance blended learning, competency-based, upgrade 1-year course was developed and conducted in 2014–2017 for two batches. Methods The course content was developed over 18 months by a team of Nepali and overseas AA training experts. The 1-year course started with a refresher course, continued with tablet-based 12-month self-learning modules and clinical case logs, regular educational mentor communication, midcourse 2-week contact time in an AA training site, regular text messaging and ended with clinical examination and multiple-choice questions. Tablet content included 168 new case studies, pre- and posttests, video lectures, matching exercises and a resource library. All module work and logged clinical cases were uploaded centrally, where clinical mentors were able to review work. Clinical skills were upgraded, as needed, through direct clinical contact midway through the course. Quantitative and qualitative course assessments were included. Results Fourteen working AAs in first batch and eight working AAs in second batch from district, zonal and mission hospitals across Nepal were enrolled. All remained working at their hospitals throughout the course, and there were no significant tablet problems inhibiting course completion. Twenty-one AAs completed all modules successfully with time required for module completion averaging 19.2 h (range 11.2–32). One AA left the course after 3 months with a personal problem. Subjectively, AAs felt that the obstetric and pediatric modules were more difficult; lowest marks were objectively seen in the airway module. Clinical mentors averaged 8.2 h mentoring review work per module with direct student communication of 2.9 h per module per month. Participants logged a total of 5473 clinical cases, ranging between 50 and 788 cases each. Complications were recorded; outcomes were good. Challenges were the national IT infrastructure making data synchronization difficult and the lack of clinical exposure at some AA’s hospitals. Nineteen AAs attended the final examination, and all passed. Two AAs withdrew before the final examination period due to personal and logistic reasons. Conclusion This is the first use of distance blended learning to upgrade district health workers in Nepal and perhaps for non-doctor anesthesia providers globally. Key success factors were motivated students, cultural and contextualized clinical content, good educational mentoring relationships with regular communication, central IT and motivational support, and face-to-face midcourse clinical contact time.