Chevening Career Plan Essay Example: District maternal health referral coordinator

Returning to Ghana as a district maternal health referral coordinator, my first task is to test whether the referral forms I redesigned with clinic nurses, community health workers, and the district health officer actually improve follow-up for high-risk patients. In the first six months, I will track two indicators across five clinics: completed handover records and follow-up visits within two weeks. I will compare six months before and after the change using the same case categories, share monthly results with the district health officer, and ask three nurses to flag where the form slows them down. An early two-clinic pilot suggested handover completion rose from about 40 to 70 percent, which I still need to verify through a full audit. In two to four years, I will convene a district referral working group with primary care, district management, and community health representatives. I expect resistance from nurses worried about extra paperwork, so I will keep the form to one page and co-revise it in monthly clinic huddles. The implementation science and routine data governance content in my UK MPH will help me defend the privacy fields and design a small multi-clinic study. I plan to send draft indicator definitions to two Chevening alumni in West African health systems during my first UK term, and to use an LSHTM applied policy project to compare our handover gaps with similar settings before presenting at the Ghana Health Service regional review. Longer term, I will submit an evidence brief to the GHS Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division proposing documented handover as a maternal health quality indicator. I still need stronger negotiation skills with regional directors. Success will mean one neighbouring district piloting the form and the indicator entering the next annual review cycle.