Primary care training in Kosovo

Primary care training during and after conflicts is one of the most challenging health care issues but is often neglected compared to emergency medical care. Recently, family medicine has been increasingly used as a model strategy to reconstruct primary care delivery systems in communities torn by conflicts. The lessons learned through providing primary pediatric care training in Kosovo, in two periods, both shortly before the NATO air strike and after the war in Kosovo, are shared in this paper. The training program was organized and provided in collaboration with the Kosovar nongovernmental organization, Mother Teresa Society, and Kinderberg International in support of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a pilot program. This paper provides a narrative description of training experiences that focused on practical bedside training and morale support throughout these two periods. Based on our evaluation, providing morale support at the field level to encourage the health care providers' motivation for learning and collegial support while suffering physical difficulties was beneficial. International primary care organizations should maintain collegial dialogue to support indigenization of family medicine, a process that adapts the principles of family medicine into their own needs in their communities.