Cross-sectional comparative study of the effect of refresher training on the knowledge, attitude and practices of urban primary health care providers

2016-10-22T03-07-52Z
Source: International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health
Aniruddha A. Malgaonkar, Sundaram Kartikeyan.
Background: Primary health care providers, who cater to the basic health care needs in urban and rural areas, ought to have the basic knowledge and a positive attitude in relation to the services they deliver. This cross-sectional, complete-enumeration, before-and-after study was conducted to determine the outcome of refresher training on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), and link workers (LWs) in an urban area in Western India. Methods: Each willing participant answered a structured pre-test questionnaire containing 25 questions in the local language (Marathi), following which, Government-approved refresher training (3 days for ANMs and 1 day for LWs) was conducted in the same language. The participants took the same questionnaire after the refresher training (post-test). The pre- and post-test scores were tabulated and statistically analysed. Results: In case of ANMs (n=60), the post-test scores (mean=20.7; SD=1.8) improved over the pre-test scores (mean=17.5; SD=2.76). The LWs (n=170) also bettered their post-test scores (mean=20.9; SD=2.52), over their pre-test scores (mean=14.4; SD=4.41). The degree of improvement in scores varied from marginal to statistically significant. Conclusions: Though the post-test results were encouraging, sustained efforts would be required to bring about the desired attitudes and practices. As a consequence of the widespread use of mobile phones, it is possible to conduct periodic refresher training through mobile phones at a much lower cost.


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