TERMS OF REFERENCE

Background

SolidarMed

SolidarMed is an international development organisation, registered as a non-profit in Switzerland.    Our health programmes are developed in close cooperation with local health authorities.  Our funds come largely from the Swiss government, the Liechtenstein Development Service and the Hilti Foundation.

Policy

Zambia is committed to strengthening its health workforce by building the capacity of health professional training institutions and scaling up their graduation numbers and quality.[1] The clinical training of nurse and midwifery students is an essential component of health workforce development which has traditionally been led from large academic health facilities, located close to large teaching hospitals. More recently, there has been a shift to support nurse and midwifery training in local, often in rural contexts. In Zambia, the training of nurses is regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Zambia (NMCZ). NMCZ recognizes clinical training as an important part of clinical governance and a means of maintaining and improving standards of patient care. As an international INGO with an MoU with the Ministry of Health, SolidarMed has a strong mandate to cooperate with the government on nurse education.

The Decentralised Model of Nurse Education

Based on the WHOs’ Global Policy Recommendations (2010) on improving access to health services and attracting health professionals to work in remote and rural locations, SolidarMed has had the support of the Hilti Foundation and the Liechtenstein Development Service to establish the Decentralised Model of nurse Training. Decentralised training in rural areas has a strong workforce imperative since it is based on evidence that training students from and in rural areas increases the likelihood of rural practice and thereby improves health services in those areas where they are most needed.[2]

SolidarMed initially partnered with St. Luke’s College from 2015 to 2018 to run a pilot of this approach. The pilot enabled more nurses and midwives to be trained using both a combined curriculum and a new approach to structured student placements.  Key components of the model are combined teaching for all nurse cadres in Year 1, decentralisation of clinical placements at multiple training sites, structured clinical mentoring of students, clinical rotation between the sites, and blended learning using both classroom and digital techniques. The model has been adopted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and is currently being scaled[3].

The pilot Phase I also saw SolidarMed supporting infrastructure and equipment improvements through the provision of student hostels, staff houses for clinical instructors and large lecture theatres to improve the teaching facilities in the pilot college. The electrification of hostels using solar panels, library, digital and other learning equipment at St. Luke’s were significantly improved to enable improvements in the standard of teaching.[4] Phase II of the decentralisation initiative ran from 2019 to 2022 and was designed to build on the successes of the decentralised training model and extend it to two additional colleges – St. Pauls and Chilonga.

The New Phase of the Project

Phase III has now commenced and runs from 2022- 2026 and includes seven new lead colleges in each of the 7 remaining provinces (a total of 10 colleges, one in each province).

Overall, the focus of the project is to increase the number and quality of Registered Nurse (RN), Registered Midwife (RM) as well and Public Health Nurse (PHN) graduates for the Zambian healthcare system, in a way that maintains the quality of the education provided but is efficient and sustainable for training institutions to run.

SolidarMed together with its local partners has developed processes, and procedures and strengthened institutional systems in support of the decentralised training model. These have now been compiled in a step-by-step implementation guideline to be used for national scale-up.

Consultancy Aims & Objectives

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide a complete review of the draft Decentralised Nurse Training Implementation Guide for publication, in terms of language, grammar and consistency and to ensure the document is comprehensive and easy to use. References and annexes should be easy to reference and suggested graphics to be included where relevant and appropriate.

Aim

To finalise the text of the decentralised nursing training model implementation guideline ready for publication.

Objectives

Objective 1. To provide a complete text-based review, editing language, grammar, and flow in support of establishing comprehensive final national implementation guidelines for the decentralised training model for nurses and midwives.

• To receive an introduction to the program and components of the intervention.
• Desktop review of the document, followed by necessary editing and revisions.
• To collaborate with content experts to clarify and enhance the text where necessary.

Objective 2. To improve the formatting and structure of Annexes and create a standard look and feel.

• Standardise formatting of developed processes and tools, with the support of the content experts strengthen these where needed.
• Align the implementation guidelines annexes and updated references.

Consultancy Process

Methodology

The consultant will receive an in-depth introduction to program intervention and provide an in-depth review of the Implementation Guidelines. He/she will work closely with the content experts. Once the consultant has achieved a solid understanding of the content and purpose of the document, the consultant will make linguistic and grammatical improvements.  The consultant will be expected to make suggestions on how and where to incorporate graphics and visuals to improve the content. These suggestions will then be discussed, considered and endorsed where appropriate.

Duration of the Assignment

The consultant will undertake the assignment for approximately 12 working days and be available for a briefing on January 10th. During the consultancy, strict adherence to the timeframe is required. The consultant will coordinate with the SolidarMed program team throughout the consultancy process until the deliverables and Final Implementation Guidelines are finalised and shared.

The final Guide will be submitted to SolidarMed on the 31st of January ready for local publication.

1. Scope of work
The consultant/ expert will work closely with SolidarMed program team to complete a:

• Desktop review of all related documents, processes, and procedures systems
• Finalise the review, editing and consistent write-up.
• Suggest and design visual aids/graphics where relevant.
• Align, reformat and standardise Annexes and References with the appropriate Microsoft tools.

2.   Key Output(s)

Deliverables and Review Meetings
Time frame

The draft version of the Implementation Guideline with proposed placement for graphics
19th  January 2024

A complete list of Final Annexes aligned, formatted, and referenced
23rd of January 2024

Final reviewed and approved Implementation Guidelines
26th of January 2024

3.    Work Location

During the period of engagement, the consultant will be required to work closely with SolidarMed’s Program Manager and Systems Strengthening Manager, both based in Lusaka. The consultant will otherwise work independently, with regular meetings as needed.

4.   Line of Communication

The consultant(s) will report to the Program Manager and collaborate with the Systems Strengthening Manager, SolidarMed.

Upon agreement with the Final Implementation Guidelines, SolidarMed will prepare a management letter responding to the deliverables.

5.  Qualifications and experience

The consultant will be required to possess the following qualifications and experience:

• Master’s degree in one of the fields:  Public health/Education/Communications/International Development or other relevant fields.
• Proven experience writing national policy documents, curriculum, protocols and national guidelines.
• Experience in development in resource-limited settings
• Knowledge and experience of the overall context in Zambia.

The consultant should possess the following attributes:

• Excellent report writing and English language skills
• Ability to recommend well-placed visual and graphics in support of text
• Work independently with strict timelines
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.

Submission of application

CV, Cover Letter and evidence of previous publications and policy documents should be delivered no later than 30th of December by 17.00hours (CAT/Zambian time).

Eligible consultants should submit their CVs with a cover letter detailing how they will approach the task and a daily rate (inclusive of tax, per diems, travel and other incidental costs) electronically to zambia@solidarmed.ch.