ABSTRACT
In order to provide high quality services in reproductive health, training of health professionals is essential. In Turkey, a project for in-service training of medical residents was conducted in 2003 under the aegis of the Human Resources Development Foundation, the Turkish Ministry of Health and UNFPA. The project included a needs assessment, training programme development and evaluation activities. A seven-day course was developed to train institutional trainers in both training skills and reproductive health information. Fourteen experienced master trainers conducted four courses for 67 institutional trainers from 37 hospital departments in four cities, who in turn conducted a three-day programme on reproductive health topics in their respective institutions, using interactive teaching methods. 163 residents from departments of obstetrics and gynaecology, family medicine, urology, public health and paediatrics participated. Over three-quarters of trainers and residents who participated in the programme approved of the content of the courses. A limited number of topics, e.g. sexual health and adolescent reproductive health, were thought to need more attention. Trainers cited improvements in doctor-patient communication and quality of outpatient and in-patient care, and initiation of counselling in their institutions. We conclude that this training programme, attended by trainers and participants from different disciplines and using interactive teaching methods, has been successful as an effective training model for medical residents. The establishment of an ongoing collaboration between the Ministry of Health and other institutions involved in resident training in Turkey is needed to ensure the expansion of this programme to all residents in training.