The development and validation of an Interprofessional eye health education programme in Rwanda

Background The prevalence of visual impairment has increased particularly in low-resource settings despite all deployed efforts to reduce avoidable blindness. Interprofessional education (IPE) is one means to support collaborative health work to address complex health problems. This study aims to develop and validate appropriate training materials and interprofessional facilitators training for interprofessional eye health education in Rwanda and SSA. Methods The training manual and contents were informed by existing primary eye care (PEC) training manuals, Arclight project educational materials, and expertise from the study team. The Arclight is a low-cost eye care diagnostic tool. Several Interprofessional Education (IPE) theories underpinned the development of these PEC training tools and faculty. International eye health and medical education experts reviewed the training materials to study the Content Validity Index (CVI). Seven students and two facilitators were invited to participate in the validation process. The Inter-rater reliability (IRR) was calculated as part of facilitators training. Descriptive and analytical statistics were applied to analyse the data. Results The validation process included five reviewers [female(n,%) = 3,60; male = 2,40), seven students (female = 57%, male = 43%), and two facilitators [female = 1,50 ; male = 1, 50]. The Interprofessional Eye Health Education (IPEHE) training manual was generally found relevant with minor suggested corrections. The training of facilitators was effective with the coefficient of agreement amongst the facilitators being above 0.80 (Kappa = 0.85). The pilot training indicated that the knowledge score percentage among the trained participants increased from 38.4–92.9% and 35.4–84.5% for the skills scores and the change in scores was statistically significant at p < 0.001. Conclusion The development and validation of the IPEHE tools in Rwanda addressed the gap in validated IPEHE resources for SSA. The training resources offer guidance on the inclusion of frugal and low-cost technologies such as the Arclight in training. The study showed that careful planning, preparation, a theoretical approach, and structured training could adequately prepare facilitators to deliver IPE. The pilot training confirmed the training's potential effectiveness in improving participants' interprofessional collaboration and eye healthcare knowledge and skills. By promoting collaborative eye health care, this study aims to contribute to existing evidence of collaborative approaches to improve access to eye care services in low-resource settings.