Making strides towards cancer management in Kenya!
A team of cancer specialists (surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, palliative care experts, onco-care nurses and radiologists) from the public and private sectors converged, September – October 2018, to develop the first Integrated National Cancer Curriculum and Content for Primary Health Care (PHC) Providers in Kenya! The development of the Integrated National Curriculum and Content arose from a need to harmonize the approaches in management of cancer in the country and enhance early cancer detection and consequently reduce on cancer case fatality rates.
The team tirelessly endeavored on this process, under the guidance of an experienced curriculum development expert, and came up with the following modules:
- Overview of cancer
- Cancer prevention and screening
- Clinical assessment for suspected cancer
- Cancer treatment
- Palliative care
- Health information, monitoring and evaluation
The developed curriculum and content have so far been reviewed and edited, awaiting pretesting and final adoption by stakeholders in Kenya. Draft mentorship guide, assessment checklists and log book for PHC providers have also been developed in readiness for the content pretesting. The target PHC providers are medical officers, nurses, clinical officers, pharmacists and laboratory technologists.
This initiative has been made possible through a partnership between Takeda Pharmaceuticals, National Cancer Institute, Cancer Alliance and Amref Health Africa through Amref Enterprises Limited.
Story by: Edna Osebe