Stories from the field – Kazakhstan

KAZAKHSTAN | Delivering knowledge to every frontline responder

3 March 2021

Knowledge saves lives, even more so during outbreaks of novel diseases when one’s understanding of the emergency and the public health measures exercised in response develop frequently. During visits to health facilities, laboratories and community centres, the staff at World Health Organization (WHO) Kazakhstan are often told by frontline medical responders that there is a never-ending need for learning that can be practically exercised to save lives.

In Kazakhstan, the WHO team has capitalised on OpenWHO’s evidence-based courses, which provide frontline responders with life-saving knowledge on various topics relevant to COVID-19, all for free. To name a few, the courses on infection prevention and control, case management, and emergency operations centres provide critical information that healthcare workers need to keep themselves and others safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We support healthcare workers in Kazakhstan daily, travelling to the locations where cases are on the rise and providing on-site consultation to doctors and patients, as well as policymakers. OpenWHO is a great help to us to ensure that healthcare workers have the required theoretical basis to work during COVID-19 response,” stated Professor Bakhyt Kosherova from Karagandy Medical University.

To promote the OpenWHO courses, WHO Kazakhstan has established an operational partnership with Kazakhstan’s specialised governmental agency for post-graduate education, medical professional associations, medical universities and alumni groups. In January 2021, the team conducted 7 awareness sessions for a range of national stakeholders. Currently, OpenWHO courses are being promoted through professional networks, Ministry of Health webpages and agencies and influencers referenced in training curricula. OpenWHO’s most popular COVID-19 courses are being translated into Kazakh by WHO, which will ease incorporating the material into the training curriculum for Kazakh medical students and health workers.

“OpenWHO enrolments from Kazakhstan have increased six-fold since the WHO country office began promoting the platform in 2020. However, we aim for the ambitious objective of reaching every healthcare worker responding to COVID-19 in Kazakhstan, regardless of their role. There are OpenWHO courses for every level of healthcare proficiency. Together with my colleagues from the WHO Regional Office for Europe, located in Copenhagen, we trained more than 4000 healthcare workers last year through online webinars. Now, we are excited to engage in OpenWHO, another valuable channel for learning, offering self-paced courses that healthcare workers can complete on their own and at a time convenient for them,” remarked Dr Vitalii Stetsyk, a member of the WHO country team in Kazakhstan.

Dr Stetsyk shared WHO Kazakhstan's experience reaching frontline learners during the first WHO #LearningSavesLives webinar, which was held on 19 February ahead of World Day of Social Justice. The webinar also included speakers from Somalia, Suriname and Tajikistan. The next session will explore the challenges women face learning in emergencies, marking International Women's Day on 8 March.

As of February 2021, OpenWHO offers 27 courses on COVID-19, available in 45 languages. To find free courses in your language, click here.

Photo: WHO Kazakhstan

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This page was last changed at Tue, 13 Jul 2021 17:33:46 +0000.