Tools

Client-Centered Reproductive Health Counseling Following Fistula Repair
This poster provides service providers with basic guidance on counseling women and couples following fistula surgery.
Files: English (PDF, 164KB), French (PDF, 169KB), and Bangla (PDF, 203KB)

Digital Stories Facilitator's Guide
This guide serves as a companion to the Learn From My Story series, a collection of video testimonies from fistula clients in Uganda. To help people listen to and use the stories, a facilitator's guide was created and includes: the text of each woman's story, discussion questions tailored to each woman's story, and key messages for facilitators to convey. The guide is intended for use with three main audiences: health care providers, women with fistula, and community members.
Files: English (PDF, 2.8MB) and French (PDF, 2.7MB)

Facility Assessment of Fistula Treatment and Prevention Services: Guidelines for Planning, Conducting and Disseminating Findings
This package of materials provides instruction for how to carry out a site assessment. Forms include: Proposal Guidelines; a Tip Sheet for Planning the Assessment; a Site Assessment Tool; and Presentation of Findings: An Outline for the Assessment Report.
Files: English (PDF, 410KB) and French (PDF, 819KB)

Facility Assessment of Fistula Treatment and Prevention Services: Site Assessment Tool
This tool includes a set of 284 questions designed to assess the availability and quality of services for fistula prevention and treatment services. It also includes a list of standard fistula facility equipment and supplies recommended for fistula surgical services. The tool is divided into five sections: General Facility Information (92 questions); Fistula Services (53); Maternity Services/Department (74); Family Planning Services/Department (38); and Equipment, Supplies, and Medications (27).
Files: English (PDF, 1.0MB) and French (PDF, 1.2MB)

Facilitative Supervision for Quality Improvement: A Curriculum
This curriculum focuses on the fundamentals of quality health care services in presenting an approach to supervision that emphasizes mentoring, joint problem solving, and two-way communication. The curriculum is meant to be used by trainers who introduce the facilitative approach to supervision to supervisors from different levels of the health system: on-site and off-site supervisors, including medical and nonmedical supervisors.
Trainer's Manual: English (PDF, 3.2MB)
Participant Handbook: English (PDF, 885KB)

Family Planning for Women and Couples Following Fistula Care
This booklet provides clients with information about family planning methods for couples following a woman's fistula repair.
Files: English (PDF, 1.0MB) and French (PDF, 1.2MB)

Fistula Care Training Strategy, Guidelines and Standards
There is a crucial need to initiate and sustain fistula programs that increase access and that strengthen the capacity of centers to provide high-quality services for repair and care of women living with obstetric fistula and traumatic gynecologic fistula. To do this, it is important to pay particular attention to the quality of training and to proactively determine how, and if, training fits into other elements of a program's performance. This training strategy seeks to create a uniform training approach and improve the quality of training and subsequent service delivery. It provides an outline for how programs can develop detailed training guidelines and standards.
Files: English (PDF, 449KB) and French (PDF, 444KB)

Fistula Client Card
This tool from Uganda allows for case management of fistula clients at facilities by tracking information about admission, diagnosis, and treatment, along with providing space for describing follow-up visits.
Files: English (PDF, 65KB)

Fistula Death Reporting Form from Uganda
These guidelines were developed by the Clinical Department of the Uganda Ministry of Health, with technical and financial assistance from Fistula Care, UNFPA, and AMREF. The tool provides guidance to policymakers, service providers, and other relevant stakeholders in auditing deaths during treatment of fistula, a rare but possible outcome.
Files: English (PDF, 548KB)

Fistula Facilitative Supervision and Clinical Monitoring for Service Delivery
This checklist facilitates the supervision and monitoring of fistula repair service delivery. Forms include: Facility Information; Fistula Service Delivery at Facility; Monitoring of Counseling Services; Notes from Client Interviews; and Summary Notes and Recommendations from the Supervision and Monitoring Visit.
Files: English (PDF, 409KB) and French (PDF, 383KB)

Fistula Facilitative Supervision and Clinical Monitoring Supplement: For Training Site and for Training Follow-Up
This checklist facilitates the supervision and monitoring of training activities relating to fistula services provision. Forms include: Facility Information; Training Follow-Up for Fistula Surgery and Perioperative Care; Training Follow-Up for Fistula Counselors; Additional Supervision/Monitoring for a Fistula Training Site; and Summary Notes and Recommendations from the Supervision and Monitoring Visit.
Files: English (PDF, 324KB) and French (PDF, 320KB)

Fistula Quarterly Reporting Form
The Fistula Care quarterly reporting template includes instructions, indicator definitions table, complications reporting guidelines, and six forms for facilities to report data on services provided. Forms include: clinical indicators for fistula surgery; fistula repair training for surgeons/physicians; training events by topic and cadre; community outreach and advocacy events; family planning services; and obstetric services.
Files: English (XLS, 535KB) and French (XLS, 547KB)

Fistula Registration Form
This tool from Uganda collects bio-data information on fistula clients and provides guidance to providers for observing and recording client history, symptoms, and examination results, as well as developing a management plan for the client.
Files: English (PDF, 247KB)

Fistula Treatment Complications: Reporting Guidelines
These guidelines provide information for reporting fistula surgery related complications and includes definitions, assumptions, and lists of select major, minor, and long-term complications that can occur.
Files: English (PDF, 255KB) and French (PDF, 301KB)

Strategy for the Prevention and Management of Fistula (2012-2016)
Files: French (PDF, 1.35MB)

Guinea Partograph Poster
This job aid was developed in Guinea and provides guidance on the proper use of the partograph during labor.
Files: French (PDF, 787KB)

Informed Consent in Fistula Care
Informed consent is a critical component of quality fistula care services. This booklet for service administrators, staff, and supervisors provides guidance on counseling patients before fistula surgery. Clients may find the provided information helpful in making an informed decision on care.
Files: English (PDF, 630KB) and French (PDF, 617KB)

Informed Consent Form
This form is a template for service providers that can be used or adapted for providers to counsel fistula patients before surgery.
Files: English (PDF, 34KB) and French (PDF, 36KB)

Job Aid: Fistula Diagnosis
This job aid assists health care providers to diagnose obstetric fistula in women who present with urine leakage. It contains a list of questions aimed at accurately diagnosing whether the woman has obstetric fistula, whether she requires surgical repair, and the complexity of the repair. It also provides advice for preparing for obstetric fistula repairs. A chart with this information is also available.
Files: English (PDF, 231KB) and French (PDF, 228KB)

Job Aid: Fistula Diagnosis Poster
This poster assists health care providers to diagnose obstetric fistula in women who present with urine leakage. It contains a list of questions aimed at accurately diagnosing whether the woman has obstetric fistula, whether she requires surgical repair, and the complexity of the repair. It also provides advice for preparing for obstetric fistula repairs. A brochure with this information is also available.
Files: English (PDF, 766KB), French (PDF, 831KB), and Bangla (PDF, 225KB)

Maternal and Newborn Health Picture Books from Niger
Picture books developed by the Fistula Eradication Network (Reseau pour l'Eradication de la Fistule) in Niger provide guiding questions for providers to use in discussing issues relating to safe motherhood with clients. These include antenatal and postnatal care, vaccinations, birth preparedness, malaria in pregnancy, danger signs for mothers and newborns, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and care and nutrition for newborns.
Version 1: French (PDF, 6.0MB)
Version 2: French (PDF, 2.5MB)

Medical Waste Management Compliance Checklist
This checklist facilitates annual monitoring of medical waste management at Fistula Care–supported sites.
Files: English (PDF, 535KB) and French (PDF, 552KB)

Monitoring Tool for Partograph Review
This tool facilitates review of partographs for monitoring and research purposes by facility managers or researchers. It includes detailed instructions, a data collection tool, and a summary sheet for recording data.
Files: English (XLS, 409KB) and French (XLS, 414KB)

Patient Record Form
This tool from Mali collects bio-data information on fistula clients and provides guidance to providers for observing and recording client history, symptoms, results of the fistula surgery as well as developing a management plan for the client. The tool also includes an informed consent form to be signed by the client.
Files: French (PDF, 159KB)

Protocol for Auditing and Reporting Mortality Related to Fistula Surgery
Fistula surgery–associated death is a rare event, but it has been known to occur. Systems should be in place to understand what happened and to prevent similar occurrences. This protocol includes guidance for investigating and reporting mortality related to fistula surgery: a reporting timeline, and detailed instructions for preparing a fistula death investigation report.
Files: English (PDF, 386KB) and French (PDF, 475KB)

Quick Reference Chart for Contraceptive Methods
This poster lists basic information about family planning methods for the service provider's reference.
Files: English (PDF, 162KB), French (PDF, 167KB), and Bangla (PDF, 372KB)

Standard Fistula Facility Equipment and Supplies
This document provides a comprehensive list of equipment and supplies necessary for fistula surgery, broken down into the following categories: fistula repair instruments; expendable supplies; operating theater equipment; and theater accessory equipment/furniture.
Files: English (PDF, 231KB)