[e-drug] Botswana expands ARV dispensing to Nurses

["Joyce Kgatlwane" <jkgatlwane@yahoo.com>]

E-DRUG: Botswana expands ARV dispensing to Nurses
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Hello to you all. 

Is your country hard-hit with the shortage of Pharmaceutical officers as well? Thought I will share the experience here in Botswana.

Initially Botswana Government provided ART services at the 32 hospital sites, and the dispensing was restricted to Pharmaceutical Officers.   Access to ARVs proved to be a challenge because patients were still traveling long distances and the queues at the hospital were continuing to be long. This was a threat to the required adherence.

Two other phases were implemented to increase access and reduce long waiting times. These include: outsourcing of patients to private sector and rolling out the services to lower level facilities (clinics and health posts). 

Availability of Pharmaceutical Officers is a major challenge in Botswana and recruiting from outside the country has also proved to be a challenge.

As a result, the Ministry of Health has expanded the dispensing of ARVs to the Nurses. For the Nurses to carry out this role effectively there was a need to develop training curriculum. So we have developed the curriculum and 85 Nurses have already been trained. 

regards

Joyce Kgatlwane
Botswana
jkgatlwane@yahoo.com

[MSF is testing the same principle in Lesotho! WB]