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| Wellington, James and McDonald |
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Training the team
Training our study team is a huge priority. We
are lucky to have a dedicated team of highly-qualified Malawian professionals,
with experience in data collection and entry. Our field teams are lead by
experienced, savvy supervisors who oversee all activities and maintain
excellent relations between the study and communities.
Our research assistants are literate in Chichewa and
English. They each have previous interviewing experience and have earned a Malawi Secondary
School Certificate and some have undergraduate degrees. We try to keep the same staff for
each activity in the study, but fully encourage our staff to go on to full-time employment!
Our field supervises oversee interview staff and conduct
ongoing training by shadowing interviewers, conducting vehicle meetings at the end of each day, and providing feedback after reviewing surveys. Each questionnaire and the notes made by interviewers are
reviewed by field supervisors daily in order to pick up circumstances
warranting follow-up and possible referral to social services. We also encourage peer review of surveys to improve quality and further professionalize our staff. The project
PI and co-PI conduct regular debriefing sessions
with supervisors to review any issues that arise.
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| Heading out to an interview with scales and a weightboard |
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| Arriving in the village and meeting guides |
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| Mock interviews |
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| Training at the Kayesa Inn |
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Our training includes:
- An introduction to the external evaluation
- Overview of the current activity (including the
study protocol)
- IN-DEPTH review of the study instrument in
English and Chichewa (this often occurs three times to ensure a
high-quality instrument)
- Role of the interviewer
- Interview methods
- Anthropometric methods
- Mock interviews
- Pilot testing of instruments
- Data management overview
- Data tracking (from the field to the office to Boston)
- Introduction to the database and Data entry
- Data security
- Research team expectations and dynamics
- Successful Teams
- Human Subjects Training and ethical guidelines* (staff are certified in the protection of Human Subjects)
- Referrals
During our June targeting assessment, we reviewed the above and
conducted the following professional development activities:
- Introduction to statistics
- Professional Development: Getting in to a graduate or undergraduate program
- Presentation of the Baseline findings
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