Health
Global Health Service Partnership

The Global Health Service Partnership is a public-private collaboration between Seed Global Health, the Peace Corps, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Our Mission

We strive to strengthen health education and delivery in places facing a dire shortage of health professionals by working with partner countries to meet their long-term health care human resource needs.

Our Programs

The Global Health Service Partnership is a public-private collaboration between Seed Global Health, the Peace Corps, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Established in 2012, the GHSP program is a novel federal initiative addressing vast shortages of health professionals in many parts of the world.

GHSP is committed to helping increase clinical care capacity and strengthen health systems in resource-limited settings by cultivating the next generation of local doctors and nurses. The program places US health professionals alongside local medical and nursing faculty counterparts to meet the teaching needs identified at each partner institution.

In the launch year of 2012-2013, GHSP placed 30 doctors and nurses at 11 training institutions in each of its three partner countries: Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. For the 2014-2015 program, 42 GHSP clinical educators are currently working at 13 sites across Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Our Work Seed brings rich experience and knowledge of medical and nursing education in resource limited settings. We provide expertise in site selection and applicant recruitment in addition to coordinating orientation and training, field support, monitoring and evaluation, and debt repayment stipends.

Site Selection With expertise to identify effective teaching sites, Seed works with the Peace Corps and local institutions to identify partner nursing and medical schools. Recruitment and Screening Through technical expertise and deep connections with the professional health community, Seed strives to recruit the most qualified doctors, nurses, and midwives.

Orientation and Training To prepare volunteers for their service, Seed provides training on the practice of medicine and nursing in resource limited settings, and familiarizes volunteers with the local burdens of disease.

Field Support Seed provides clinical mentorship and resources to support volunteers in the field. Seed leaders are experienced clinicians and educators ready to assist with issues and challenges as they arise in the field. Seed helps volunteer by providing resources such as textbooks, teaching tools, electronic access to journals, access to Up-To-Date, and other clinical resources.

Monitoring and Evaluation Seed focuses on five core areas of monitoring and evaluation to measure the effectiveness and impact of the GHSP program, including: country status and impact, institutional impact and experiences, student and faculty experiences, volunteer activities and experiences, and inputs, operations and management. See Our Impact

Loan Repayment Seed provides up to $30,000 in debt relief for its volunteers. Funded through private philanthropy, this loan repayment stipend ensures that the most-qualified applicants can serve regardless of financial barriers.

EXAMPLES

Dr. Maureen Ries

Dr. Maureen Ries, an obstetrician and gynecologist working in northern Tanzania, held a conference for the labor nurses at her hospital. She taught 45 new nurses skills and protocols to make them more comfortable with the tasks for which they were responsible. Shortly after the conference, Maureen was presenting to her fellow physicians and was asked if the nurses from the surrounding rural communities had attended her conference. Maureen learned that the 45 nurses had spread the updates she had taught to the outside communities and that they were now updating the doctors there as well. Maureen provided essential education for the hospital staff, but its impact was far larger.

Dr. Martin Neft

In his first week as a physician trainer in Tanzania, Dr. Martin Neft saw a very sick patient who was unresponsive. He was told the patient was six months pregnant, HIV positive, had a stroke, and was beyond hope. Martin questioned if the patient had toxoplasmosis, an infection common in HIV positive patients, which can mimic a stroke. After treatment, the patient woke up and eventually delivered a healthy baby. But the real success came months later when Martin watched as one of his medical students successfully diagnosed toxoplasmosis in a similar patient.

Kelly Lippi

Kelly Lippi, a nurse volunteer, taught in a bachelor’s of nursing program in Uganda. Though she had 160 students, only two had chosen to be nurses while the others had wanted to be doctors, veterinarians or pharmacists. Kelly taught her students how nurses could diagnose illnesses, care for patients, and save lives. In the year-end evaluations, one student wrote to Kelly, “You have made me feel that I have chosen the best profession in the world.” The student further elaborated that she was excited to share this passion with her future students. Kelly achieved her goal.