COVID-19 in Africa: Managing the Outbreak in Primary Care Settings (FutureLearn)

Alongside patient fears over attending a virus hotspot, it’s known that primary care providers feel unprepared to manage patients with COVID-19 like symptoms.

On this course for primary healthcare providers, you’ll learn about the outbreak of COVID-19 in Africa.

You’ll find out about safe patient management including PPE, infection prevention and control, and the wider health impact of the pandemic.

You’ll also learn how to develop trust in low and middle-income countries that primary care settings are able to meet the international COVID-19 safety requirements.

What topics will you cover?

The course will cover what you need to know and what you need to do in relation to the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in primary care. Topics we will cover include:

- Background of COVID-19

- Current situation in Africa

- When to suspect COVID-19 infection in primary care

- Safe assessment of suspected cases

- Infection prevention and control

- Management of acutely unwell patients

- Management of those with mild symptoms in home isolation

- Consultation tips and advice on keeping your practice running safely

- Mitigation of the psychological and mental health effects of COVID-19

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Develop understanding of COVID-19, and specifically its impact across Africa

- Identify procedures for prevention and control in primary care, and safe management of personal protective equipment for medical staff and patients

- Describe the correct management plans for patients on home isolation

- Apply the necessary measures to keep your primary care services running and routine care

Who is the course for?

The aim of this course is to help clinicians contribute to a gradual return to the patient volumes observed before the outbreak in Africa.

The course is designed for primary care providers operating across the African continent, with a particular focus on upper lower to lower-middle-income populations where information sharing can be difficult.

This may include non-physician clinicians (NPCs) known as clinical officers (COs) across selected African countries.

The course will help patient populations in urban and peri-urban areas who have access to primary care facilities that predominantly offer outpatient services (although in some cases these extend to inpatient services).

Whereas specific reference to the wider African healthcare system will be made, this course remains applicable, in principle, to all low and middle-income primary care practices.