Over the past quarter, NEST Tanzania worked towards important milestones in sustainability of the NEST model within the national systems.

In February 2022, NEST Tanzania supported the Ministry of Health’s Department of Nursing and Midwifery Services (DNMS), Tanzania Nursing and Midwifery Council (TNMC), Tanzania Midwives Association (TAMA), and Tanzania Nursing Association (TANA) in the review of the pre-service nursing curriculum and integration of the NEST modules into the Basic Technician Certificates to Ordinary Diploma. The curriculum covers 90% of the nursing courses, which will increase the number of people skilled in small and sick newborn care in Tanzania.

Figure 1: Preserving Nursing Curriculum review

QI facilitators Training and Visit

 Quality Improvement (QI) is part of the work NEST does with governments and facilities to track outcomes and quality of care. The Facility Quality Improvement reports include detailed outcomes that enable stakeholders to make recommendations to improve care.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the NEST Tanzania team conducted QI Facilitators Training in the Morogoro region, where facilitators were trained in all NEST QI tracks and tools. The training was facilitated by Dr. Martin Mbwana, head of quality assurance at the Ministry of Health. The four-day training focused on different approaches to QI and the NEST QI modules. Participants included people from all NEST implementing sites and one regional QI focal person from all three regions whose inclusion will improve the sustainability of the QI efforts.

The NEST team also conducted QI visits at all NEST facilities for the first quarter of 2022. These visits were completed by the facilitators and facility QI focal persons. Once stakeholders review the reports from these visits, facilities will make their recommendations for improvements and plans for implementing them. Additional follow-up visits occur throughout the year to check on progress.