scholarly journals BARRIERS FACED BY THE FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS RELATED TO HEALTH COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES UNDER NATIONAL HEALTH MISSION (NHM) IN CHHOTAUDEPUR DISTRICT OF GUJARAT*

2021 ◽  
pp. 482-495
Author(s):  
Megha Sidhpura ◽  
Anjali Pahad
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
National Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Family Welfare ◽  
Frontline Health Workers ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
Communication Approach

Health Communication is an integral component of the National Health Mission used for promotion of health programmes and healthy behaviour amongst the communities. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI (2019) a strategic framework for targeted IEC activities using 360-degree communication approach is designed. The Present research was undertaken in a tribal district of Gujarat state-Chhotaudepur to study the barriers related to Health Communication Strategies by the Frontline Health Workers and therefore, a combination of descriptive and analytical methods to explore and describe the existing situation of Health Communication Strategies was adopted. This paper describes about qualitative aspect of the research conducted through total twelve Focus Group Discussions i.e. two in each block (Chhotaudepur, Kawant, Naswadi, Bodeli, PaviJetpur and Sankheda) in which 74 ASHAs, 31 ASHA Facilitators and 34 Female Health Workers. Theme guides was used for FGDs. Results and discussion are illustrated on central themes of research. Data illustrated that majority of the ASHAs faced moderate barriers and significant differences level barriers were reported by those who belonged to Bodeli, having excellent occupational skills, with low knowledge about Health Communication Strategies and average media use expressed Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Dr. Megha Sidhpura & Dr. Anjali Pahad / Page 482-495 March, 2021. VOL.13. ISSUE NO. 1 https://hrdc.gujaratuniversity.ac.in/Publication Page | 483 more barriers than their counterparts. Barriers related to availability, accessibility and characteristics of beneficiaries for Health Communication Strategies were faced to great extent by ASHAs and ASHA Facilitators, however, FHWs expressed barriers related to increase in workload due to duplication of data entry at multiple levels and teething problems in TeCHO, In a nutshell, results conclude that despite knowing the fact that Health Communication has a significant role to play, this component of NHM is neglected. Hence, the findings demand serious attention on the part of NHM officials and media experts who are the custodian of the community process component of NHM and also academicians and researchers who can also contribute immensely. It is suggested to pay utmost importance and adopt to evidence-based scientific approach for design, production and provision of tailormade, useful and effective Health Communication Strategies for grass-root level health workers and volunteers to foster communication efforts in improving on social determinants of health, achieving behavioural change.

scholarly journals Development and Implementation of a Mobile Phone–Based Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV Cascade Analysis Tool: Usability and Feasibility Testing in Kenya and Mozambique (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nami Kawakyu ◽  
Ruth Nduati ◽  
Khátia Munguambe ◽  
Joana Coutinho ◽  
Nancy Mburu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Care Cascade ◽  
Frontline Health Workers ◽  
Cascade Analysis ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Mother To Child

BACKGROUND Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) care cascade failures drive pediatric HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. As nurses’ clinical and management role in PMTCT expand, decision-support tools for nurses are needed to facilitate identification of cascade inefficiencies and solutions. The mobile phone–based PMTCT cascade analysis tool (mPCAT) provides health facility staff a quick summary of the number of patients and percentage drop-off at each step of the PMCTC care cascade, as well as how many women-infant pairs would be retained if a step was optimized. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to understand and improve the mPCAT’s core usability factors and assess the health workers’ experience with using the mPCAT. METHODS Overall, 2 rounds of usability testing were conducted with health workers from 4 clinics and leading experts in maternal and child health in Kenya and Mozambique using videotaped think aloud assessment techniques. Semistructured group interviews gauged the understanding of mPCAT’s core usability factors, based on the Nielsen Usability Framework, followed by development of cognitive demand tables describing the needed mPCAT updates. Post adaptation, feasibility was assessed in 3 high volume clinics over 12 weeks. Participants completed a 5-point Likert questionnaire designed to measure ease of use, convenience of integration into work, and future intention to use the mPCAT. Focus group discussions with nurse participants at each facility and in-depth interviews with nurse managers were also conducted to assess the acceptability, use, and recommendations for adaptations of the mPCAT. RESULTS Usability testing with software engineers enabled real-time feedback to build a tool following empathic design principles. The revised mPCAT had improved navigation and simplified data entry interface, with only 1 data entry field per page. Improvements to the results page included a data visualization feature and the ability to share results through WhatsApp. Coding was simplified to enable future revisions by nontechnical staff—critical for context-specific adaptations for scale-up. Health care workers and facility managers found the tool easy to use (mean=4.3), used the tool very often (mean=4.1), and definitely intended to continue to use the tool (mean=4.8). Ease of use was the most common theme identified, with emphasis on how the tool readily informed system improvement decision making. CONCLUSIONS The mPCAT was well accepted by frontline health workers and facility managers. The collaborative process between software developer and user led to the development of a more user-friendly, context-specific tool that could be easily integrated into routine clinical practice and workflow. The mPCAT gave frontline health workers and facility managers an immediate, direct, and tangible way to use their clinical documentation and routinely reported data for decision making for their own clinical practice and facility-level improvements.

scholarly journals Government Communication Strategies during Coronavirus Pandemic: United Arab Emirates Lessons

2021 ◽  
pp. 097206342098309
Author(s):  
Ahmed Farouk Radwan ◽  
Sheren Ali Mousa
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
The State ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Government Communication

Government communication introduced important lessons during the worldwide experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to apply known efficacious principles of risk and health communication strategies. The purpose of the study is to depict and explore the United Arab Emirates government communication scenario in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as well as look at the types of strategies, information and messages delivered via digital mediums to handle challenges that are raised based on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model. The study includes a qualitative analysis of two government bodies’ digital platforms: ‘The Ministry of Health and Prevention’ (mohap) and ‘Crisis and Disasters Management Authority’. Results indicated that the UAE government used different communication aims and strategies to face the pandemic according to the risk management scenario. In the quarantine phase, communication focused on giving people information about the disease, raising awareness about the disease, motivating health and behaviour change, informing people about government decisions and procedures. In the coexistence phase communication focused on emphasising the necessity of adherence the health measures, providing information on re-work in institutions and commercial centres, involving people in the health and social initiatives, confronting non-compliance with health precautions. Government communication also focused on facing rumours and false information. UAE government communication used digital platforms and social media to address more than 200 nationalities living in the state for ensuring that they adhere to the precautionary measures and coordinate with the authorities. Government communication was committed to a set of values including equality between citizens of the state and residents, societal and individual responsibility, recognising the frontline medical staff and acknowledging their sacrifices. UAE implemented an integrated, coherent and effective scenario to deal with the crisis. It developed risk communication strategies in health communication to manage the COVID-19 crisis by following international standards and also took into account its own political, economic, social and cultural features. The UAE government used many strategies to inform and convince people including clarification of measures strategy, reassurance strategy, ambiguity reduction strategy, behaviour efficacy strategy, correcting misinformation and rumours, advising strategy.

scholarly journals Factors Affecting Utilization of the National Health Insurance Scheme by Federal Civil Servants in Rivers State, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 004695802110176
Author(s):  
Obelebra Adebiyi ◽  
Foluke Olukemi Adeniji
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
National Health Insurance ◽  
National Health ◽  
National Health Insurance Scheme ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Health Insurance Scheme ◽  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
Rivers State

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of Nigeria was established in 2005. This study assessed the utilization of health care and associated factors amongst the federal civil servants using the NHIS in Rivers state. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaires. Data were collated and analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. A Chi-square test was carried out. The level of Confidence was set at 95%, and the P-value ≤ .05. Out of a total of 334 respondents, 280 (83.8%) were enrolled for NHIS, 203 (72.5%) utilized the services of the scheme. Most 181 (82.1%) of the respondents who utilized visited the facility at least once in the preceding year. Although, 123 (43.9%) of the respondents made payments at a point of access to health care services, overall there was a reduction in out of pocket payment. Possession of NHIS card, the attitude of health workers, and patients’ satisfaction were found to significantly affect utilization P ≤ .05. Regression analysis shows age and income to be a predictor of utilization of the NHIS. Though utilization is high, effort should be made to remove payment at the point of access and improving the harsh attitude of some of the health workers.

scholarly journals The implementation of a mobile application to support community-based health workers

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A C F Martins ◽  
P L Pereira ◽  
A C C N Mafra ◽  
J L Miraglia ◽  
C N Monteiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Administrative Staff ◽  
Economic Data ◽  
Process Change ◽  
Community Based

Abstract Issue Real-time access to up-to-date population information is essential to the strategic planning of primary health care (PHC). In the Brazilian public health system community-based health workers (CHWs), working as part of PHC teams, collect health, demographic and socio-economic data from individuals mainly through paper-based forms that are later entered manually into electronic information systems. Mobile applications could help to improve the quality and speed of this process facilitating the CHWs day-to-day work while improving the access to the collected information. Description of the Problem During September of 2019, a mobile application installed in tablets for the collection of health, demographic and socio-economic data was deployed for 432 CHWs of 87 PHC teams in the southern region of São Paulo, Brazil, serving a total population of 283,324 individuals. During implementation, the acceptability and challenges faced by CHWs were evaluated and the time taken to complete data entry. Results Seventy-two hours of training were offered to CHWs and other 139 professionals including managers, nurses and administrative staff (AS). Some CHWs reported concerns about the process change and fear of not being able to operate the application, especially those unfamiliar to the technology. With training and team support, fear was transformed into satisfaction with the realization of the benefits of the system. The main infrastructure challenge was the need for installation of Wi-Fi routers in some health care units, in addition to the replacement 4.4% of damaged tablets. In four months 97.6% of the total population was registered in the application. Lessons A WhatsApp group was created to clarify AS doubts, receive suggestions and disseminate guidelines. AS remained as the reference point at healthcare units and data completeness still needs to be reinforced. Key messages A mobile application was well-accepted by CHWs and could facilitate the collection of population data. A tablet app proved to be a useful tool to generate information for the PHC teams.

scholarly journals Chasing the ghost of infection past: identifying thresholds of change during the COVID-19 infection in Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Santamaría ◽  
Joaquín Hortal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Exponential Growth Rate ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Key Events

Abstract One of the largest nationwide bursts of the first COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Spain, where infection expanded in densely populated areas through March 2020. We analyse the cumulative growth curves of reported cases and deaths in all Spain and two highly populated regions, Madrid and Catalonia, identifying changes and sudden shifts in their exponential growth rate through segmented Poisson regressions. We associate these breakpoints with a timeline of key events and containment measures, and data on policy stringency and citizen mobility. Results were largely consistent for infections and deaths in all territories, showing four major shifts involving 19–71% reductions in growth rates originating from infections before 3 March and on 5–8, 10–12 and 14–18 March, but no identifiable effect of the strengthened lockdown of 29–30 March. Changes in stringency and mobility were only associated to the latter two shifts, evidencing an early deceleration in COVID-19 spread associated to personal hygiene and social distancing recommendations, followed by a stronger decrease when lockdown was enforced, leading to the contention of the outbreak by mid-April. This highlights the importance of combining public health communication strategies and hard confinement measures to contain epidemics.

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