Mentoring approaches in a safe surgery program in Tanzania: Lessons learned during COVID-19 and recommendations for the future.

Background: COVID-19 has dramatically affected the delivery of health care and technical assistance. This is true in Tanzania, where maternal mortality and surgical infection rates are significantly higher than in high-income countries. This paper describes lessons learned about the optimal application of in-person and virtual mentorship in the Safe Surgery 2020 program to improve the quality of surgical services in Tanzania before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: From January 2018 through December 2020, Safe Surgery 2020 supported 40 health facilities in Tanzania's Lake Zone to improve the quality of surgical care. A blended surgical mentorship model, employing both onsite and virtual mentorship, was central to the program's capacity development approach. With COVID-19, the program pivoted to full virtual mentorship. Through continuous learning and adaptation processes, including a human-centered design workshop, surveys assessing mentors' confidence with different competencies, and focus group discussions with mentors, mentees and safe surgery program staff, the program distilled the optimal use of mentorship models.
Results: Developing complex surgical skills, addressing contextual considerations, problem-solving, and building trusting relationships were best suited to in-person mentorship, whereas virtual mentorship was most effective in supporting mentees' quality improvement projects, data use, case discussions, and reinforcing clinical practices. Leading successful virtual learning required enhanced facilitation skills and active engagement of health facility leadership.
Conclusions: In-person and virtual mentorship offer distinct benefits and complement each other when combined. Investing more in-person mentorship at the beginning of programs allows for the establishment of trust that is foundational to effective mentorship.
Competing Interests: The Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Jhpiego, and Assist International received funding from the GE Foundation for the Safe Surgery 2020 project. Laura Fitzgerald, Leopold Tibyehabwa, John Varallo, Edwin Ernest, Margaret Mary Bertram, Shehnaz Alidina, Stella Mshana, Dorcas Simba, Kevin Charles, Victoria Smith, Monica Cainer, Augustino Hellar, and Adam Katoto had financial support from GE Foundation for the submitted work. Laura Fitzgerald, Leopold Tibyehabwa, John Varallo, Edwin Ernest, Margaret Mary Bertram, Stella Mshana, Dorcas Simba, Kevin Charles, Augustino Hellar, and Adam Katoto declare financial support from ELMA Philanthropies. Anmol Patted has nothing to declare.
(© 2023 Jhpiego Corporation.)