Rwanda's success in advancing midwifery education: a blueprint of a sustainable, nationally driven curriculum standardization.

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) defines and sets the Essential Competencies for Midwifery Practice and provides a framework for developing and reviewing midwifery curricula. This framework ensures that pre-service midwifery education designed for students leads to the demonstration of the required midwifery specific competencies. The development of the ICM competencies in 2024 confirms the timeliness of the effort of Rwanda to update its national curricula.

Quality and resilience of clinical laboratories in Rwanda: a need for sustainable strategies.

Background: Quality healthcare is a global priority, reliant on robust health systems for evidence-based medicine. Clinical laboratories are the backbone of quality healthcare facilitating diagnostics, treatment, patient monitoring, and disease surveillance. Their effectiveness depends on sustainable delivery of accurate test results.

Clinical Referral Laboratories in Rwanda.

Objectives: We investigated the quality system performance in Rwandan referral laboratories to determine their progress toward accreditation.

Methods: We conducted audits across five laboratories in 2017, using the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation checklist. Laboratories were scored based on the World Health Organization grading scale (0-5 stars scale) and compared with earlier audits.

Innovative strategies for a successful SLMTA country programme: The Rwanda story.

Background: In 2009, to improve the performance of laboratories and strengthen healthcare systems, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) and partners launched two initiatives: a laboratory quality improvement programme called Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA), and what is now called the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA).

Objectives: This study describes the achievements of Rwandan laboratories four years after the introduction of SLMTA in the country, using the SLIPTA scoring system to measure laboratory progress.

Methods: Three cohorts of five laboratories each were enrolled in the SLMTA programme in 2010, 2011 and 2013.