- Ano de Publicação: 2017
- Journal: Anais do Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical
- Link: http://anaisihmt.com/index.php/ihmt/article/view/60
In response to a request from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, a project for the external evaluation of the six editions of the initiative “Contract for short term courses for health professionals from Portuguese Speaking African Countries and East Timor” organized between 2011 and 2016 was carried out.
The objectives were to characterize the demography of the trainees, identify their professional route and characterize the way they became agents of change after the course.
Two descriptive studies were carried out: a quantitative study of the characterization of the trainees using secondary data, and a predominantly quantitative evaluative study, based mainly on data collected through a questionnaire addressed to the trainees.
A total of 99 professionals from the PALOP and Timor-Leste, with a mean of 36 years, mostly female and medical doctors, were trained. The 42 trainees responding to the questionnaire all returned to their country of origin after the internship, and almost all to the same health institution and service. Most admitted positive learning and capacity building results, and recognized a positive behavior change attributable to the course.
In spite of the limitations of the study, in particular the potential low representativeness of the trainees, the initiative seems to have had positive results, suggesting the development of impact evaluation studies to establish definitive conclusions.