CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH TRAINING (CIRHT)
For adolescent girls and women, reproductive health services are critical at every stage of life. Yet in many countries, comprehensive reproductive health care, including family planning, is not available or accessible because there are too few trained health professionals to guide patients.
The Center for International Reproductive Health Training at the University of Michigan (CIRHT-UM) worked with medical schools to integrate hands-on, clinical training in comprehensive reproductive health care, including family planning and safe abortion.
Together, we committed to training of the next generation of doctors, nurses and midwives to be confident, compassionate leaders in their communities.
CIRHT Approach
Health professionals are the foundation of healthy families and thriving communities. CIRHT-UM worked with medical and midwifery and nursing schools to train the health work force of the future with comprehensive reproductive health education rooted in three areas: training, patient service and research.
Training
CIRHT-UM partnered with medical, nursing and midwifery schools to meet client needs across the reproductive health continuum of care. The integrated curriculum prepared graduates to provide family planning and contraceptive services, comprehensive abortion care and quality counseling. Beyond the classroom, these future doctors, nurses and midwives honed their skills in simulation labs, reproductive health clinic attachments and internships.
With a sound understanding of reproductive health as part of basic sciences, CIRHT-UM and partner schools build capacity for students to strengthen practical skills in their clinical years; first through the use of skills labs and then by providing care to patients, under the supervision of residents and faculty.
Service
With hands-on training, students learn critical techniques as well as the communication and counseling skills needed to deliver quality care. Every CIRHT-UM graduate has been taught how to work with a patient to address their individual needs, whether it is counseling on a full range of contraceptive methods or comprehensive abortion care. When doctors, nurses and midwives understand and prioritize caring for women and girls, they will help reduce the stigma that too often surrounds reproductive health services.
Research
Asking critical questions helps us to understand the impact of our work. CIRHT-UM fostered a ‘team science’ approach in research which is encouraging students and faculty to collaborate in collection of local scientific data and to find answers through scientific exploration.
CIRHT Toolkit
Research Toolkit
We compiled 13 research competencies from a pool of materials over the course of our 5 years of research training projects with partner health sciences institutions in Ethiopia and Rwanda. This collection has been selected from a larger pool of materials to represent the most pertinent resources that supported our training for the specific competencies in the research lifecycle. Click here to access the research competencies.
Education Toolkit for Faculty
Through CIRHT-UM’s faculty development program we provided faculty in OBGYN, midwifery, nursing, and collaborating departments with the skills, coaching, and professional networks to be exemplary educators, health providers, and researchers. Through these partnerships, we have provided personalized curriculum review and faculty development across 11 colleges and universities in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Building on the lessons and materials from those projects, we distilled 12 faculty competencies. The toolkit maps those competencies to some of the core materials that we used for our workshops and webinars. Click here to access the faculty resources.
Education Toolkit for Students
The education toolikit for students are collected over the course of our 5 years of pre-service education projects with partner health sciences institutions in Ethiopia and Rwanda. This collection has been selected from a larger pool of materials to represent the most pertinent resources that supported our training for 14 specific competencies in FP/CAC. Click here for access to the student resources.
