Writing skills enhancement for public health professionals in Rwanda

In 2013, Canadian scholars delivered a 1-week workshop to 30 junior public health professionals in Rwanda. The goal was to improve the Rwandans’ skills and confidence with respect to writing scientific papers for submission to international peer-reviewed global health journals. As a result of the workshop, there was a statistically significant improvement in participants’ reported confidence in many aspects of navigating the publishing process, but no improvement in confidence regarding statistically analyzing their data. Remarkably, as a group, participants were able to write an article for a leading international journal, which was subsequently published. Results indicate that similar interventions would be both successful and well received, especially if targeted to individuals at a similar stage of career progress.