Distance Education
When TulaHealth first assessed the issues and opportunities in Guatemala in 2003, the most critical gap was the need for trained health personnel in rural areas.
TulaHealth’s objective was to train a critical mass of nurses willing and able to work in the remote Indigenous communities in Guatemala.
TulaHealth pursued this through a multi-pronged strategy:
Recruiting students who had roots in rural Indigenous communities, and were therefore steeped in local language, culture and environment
Offering training for auxiliary nurses through a curriculum optimized to meet the needs of rural communities—via a decentralized approach that allowed nurses to train close to home
Working with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health and NGOs to ensure that graduating nurses were trained and employed where they are needed
At the request of the Ministry of Health, TulaHealth has since expanded the types of training programs offered to health personnel. These have included courses on maternal, newborn, and child health, child malnutrition, epidemiology, and digital health strategies.
TulaHealth continues to work with the Ministry of Health to identify training needs and ensure that health personnel are capable of delivering necessary health services in their rural home communities.
Technology
Smartphones
Since 2007 we have equipped community health workers with mobile phones, and now with smartphones. This enables community health workers in Guatemala’s most remote and challenging communities to better coordinate the transfer of high-risk patients, consult with a network of health professionals, collect community health data, and use digital media to provide health education.
