Delivering Improved Training for Health Care Workers

Additional partners: University of Massachusetts School of Medicine (UMMS).

Liberia’s infant and maternal mortality rates, malaria prevalence, and incidence of malnutrition are among the highest in the world. The country’s 2008 Poverty Reduction Strategy targets workforce development in healthcare as a high priority.

This partnership seeks to reverse the challenges that the University of Liberia and its sister public institution, the Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts face in supplying healthcare workers equipped to address Liberia’s healthcare needs. Estimates indicate that Liberia’s underserved population of more than three million urgently needs 8,000 more doctors, nurses, and midwives.

Indiana University at Bloomington, along with the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, will lend expertise to the partnership in a variety of ways—from collecting and sending current textbooks in biology, chemistry, mathematics, nursing, and other courses to providing six-week summer study tours for Liberian faculty in the United States.In addition, the partnership will create a new two-year Core Health and Life Science Undergraduate Program and begin planning for a joint four-year bachelor's program in nursing science (BSN). Partners will also work together to improve instructional quality in introductory science courses, develop upgrades to the preclinical science curriculum at the University of Liberia's Medical and Pharmacy Colleges, and modernize the University of Liberia's teaching and learning resources.