The training was done by Botswana Harvard Partnership (BHP)-PEPFAR Master Trainers for the Ministries of Local Government and Health. A BHP pharmacist master trainer Oyenuga Olusola explained at the recent Pharmaceutical Society of Botswana congress that two types of training have been developed for the nurses to prescribe or dispense ARVs. One is a four-week training on ARV prescription and dispensing. The other is a four-day ARV drug management and dispensing. Olusola said that only nurses who have attended the Kitso training that involves administering and monitoring anti-retroviral therapy to HIV/AIDS patients were eligible for the dispensing and prescription course. The other criterion is that the nurses should have been attending to patients at the Infectious Disease Care Clinic (IDCC) on a daily basis. The patients they attend to should have been following the Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy (HAART) steadily for six months, with no opportunistic illnesses.
The ARV prescription and dispensing training includes practical attachment, followed by mentorship by a doctor and a pharmaceutical officer at the nearest antiretroviral therapy centre.
