Programs: Partners In Health
Announced:
July 20, 2011
Category:
Facilitating Job Training & Workforce Development
Fund Amount: $1,812,220 Grant
Dr. Patrick Almazor with Paul Farmer at
the inauguration of the program in St. Marc.
See more in the Partners In Health Photo Gallery.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's grant for Zanmi Lasante will allow it to establish a medical residency education program. The program will train new physicians and retrain nurses, who will go on to teach even more Haitian health workers. This retraining model will create a prototype for future medical education programs throughout Haiti. The nurses training program will first focus on emergency and trauma response. The training will identify critical gaps in training in order to ensure nurses in the program will learn and go on to teach skills necessary for quality care.
There is a critical shortage of trained medical professionals outside Port-au-Prince. Partners In Health estimates that there are currently only 15 doctors at l’Hôpital Saint Nicolas, the primary hospital for the people of St. Marc and the 1.5 million people in the Artibonite region. This program will vastly improve the doctor-to-patient ratios in the region and throughout Haiti.
Why We Invested in Partners In Health
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's grant to Partners In Health for Zanmi Lasante reflects our commitment to supporting job creation, particularly jobs in healthcare education, which develops the human capacity for long-term growth in Haiti.
Transforming Lives and Livelihoods
Zanmi Lasante's medical training program will strengthen Haiti's health system through doctor and auxiliary nurse training programs, bringing better medical care to Haitians living outside Port-au-Prince. The program will:
- Improve doctor-to-patient ratios at the public hospital in St. Marc by raising the number of full-time physicians from five to 22;
- Train 18 new Haitian family practice physicians, and retrain 120 Haitian auxiliary nurses, who will then go on to train 1,000 future health workers;
- Increase the quality and scope of healthcare at l’Hôpital Saint Nicolas, the primary referral hospital for the 1.5 million people living in the Artibonite region;
- Promote a country-wide government strategy to strengthen Haiti’s health system, by addressing the chronic shortage of medical professionals outside Port-au-Prince.
About Partners In Health and Zanmi Lasante
Partners In Health (PIH) works in 12 countries around the world to provide quality health care to people and communities devastated by joint burdens of poverty and disease. PIH has been providing vital health care services in Haiti for more than 20 years and is the largest health care provider in the country, working with the Haitian Ministry of Health to deliver comprehensive health care services to a catchment area across the Central Plateau and the Lower Artibonite Valley.
Creole for “Partners In Health,” Zanmi Lasante is PIH’s sister organization in Haiti. It was founded in 1983 and is currently the largest health care provider in Central Haiti, serving an area across the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite regions. Since the 2010 earthquake, Zanmi Lasante has been working with Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population and the National Medical School of Haiti on plans to sustain medical education in the short-term and to improve it over the long-term. One of its projects is building a large-scale teaching hospital in Mirebalais.
Learn more about Partners In Health's work in Haiti at www.pih.org/haiti.
