Advanced training in nutrition and management for health professionals in Guatemala

• CATIE and the Ministry of Health promote specialized workshops in data analysis and soft skills, strengthening efficiency in the health sector.

December 7, 2023. During the last two weeks of November and the first week of December, four regional workshops on nutrition issues were held in Guatemala for nutritionists and epidemiologists from the Departmental Directorates of Integrated Health Services Networks (DDRISS, by its Spanish acronym) and the Hospital Pediatric Nutrition Unit team from all over the country.

This training was coordinated with the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP), TulaSalud, and CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) through the National Nutrition Information Platform Project (PiNN), as members of the nutrition cluster.

According to Gabriela Ogaldes, nutrition specialist of the PiNN project, the workshops supported the development of two specialized topics, one on quantitative data analysis and the other on soft skills. Ogaldes added that the first topic aimed to provide participants with essential tools to understand and apply key concepts in the analysis of qualitative data related to human behavior in the nutritional context. 

Marlon Figueroa, nutrition advisor of the Vice-Ministry of Primary Care, commented that these workshops arise through an initiative of the morbimortality table, where different MSPAS units at the central level that are related to the topic of nutrition participate. "It was in this space that we identified the training needs that exist in the departmental and district directorates. We are seeking to standardize concepts and procedures at the national level," said Figueroa.

Some participants, such as Honey Noemí Pineda, epidemiologist of the DDRISS of Suchitepéquez, indicated that the course on data analysis was useful to reinforce the knowledge that they put into practice on a daily basis.

Another of the courses given and supported by the PiNN project was on soft skills, specifically teamwork and problem solving, which, according to Ogaldes, was aimed at identifying daily conflicts in the health network's work area and seeking or proposing viable, responsible and timely solutions to improve the work environment, work dynamics, efficiency and agility in work performance.

"It was important that nutritionists from different areas participated, because it was possible to standardize the concepts. The one on conflict resolution was interesting because it provided us with tools that can be implemented when conflicts arise in the work environment," said Silvana Giron, nutritionist from Sololá.

To conclude with the development of the workshops, UNICEF presented the publication of the Lancet Breastfeeding series that was launched in London, England in 2023, made up of three articles that focus on how governments and public health underestimate the value of breastfeeding for human life and on the contrary how the breastfeeding substitutes industry takes advantage of this situation to increase its marketing and sales.