264554 Assessment of knowledge and practice of Health Extension Workers on clean & safe delivery,Oromia,Ethiopia

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Mesfin Nigussie Sr., MPH , Integrated Family Health program Oromia branch office, Integrated Family Health Program in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tesfaye Chuko Sr., MPH , Oromia Regional Health Bureau, Integrated Family Health Program, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Yigzaw Kebede, Co Auther , Scool of Public Health, Gondar University, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Belaineh Girma, Co Author , School of Public Health, Gondar University, Addi Ababa, Ethiopia
     
Background: To Respond to the challenges in achieving the MDGs, the Ethiopian government introduced the Health Extension Program (HEP) in 2003 to its Health Sector Development Program (HSDP) for equitable access to preventive, promotive and select curative health interventions through community HEWs.

The limitation in the HEW pre-service training on safe and clean delivery including newborn care led to the Federal Ministry of Health's decision for a one-month in-service training. This study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of this training in Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Methods A cross sectional comparative study was conducted on two groups of HEWs: 119 trained and 119 untrained, and data were entered, compiled and analyzed in SPSS-13 software.

Results Sixty-three percent of trained and 2% of untrained HEWs had knowledge on safe and clean delivery service. This is statistically significant (p value < 0.05).

Fifty-one trained (43%) and 13 untrained (11%) HEWs practiced safe and clean delivery. (p value <0.05). Nonetheless, 65 of the trained (55%) and 96 of the untrained (81%) HEWs never observed or attended deliveries.

Conclusions HEW's knowledge on safe and clean delivery service was markedly higher in the trained group indicating that training brings good outcome. Of the trained group, however, only 51 (43%) practiced skills owing to the rather theory-based nature of the training.

Learning Areas:
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Participants will compare the knowledge and skills in clean and safe delivery between trained and untrained Health Extension Workers (HEWs).

Keywords: Practice, Safe Mother Program

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My name is Mesfin Nigussie, Bsc, MPH. I am senior public health specialists with long years of teachninng in Gondar Medical Science College on public health, nursing and midwifery courses. I am member of American public Health Association since 2009. I presented and abstract on one APHA conference held in philadelphia, USA. Currently, I am working for USAID funded Integrated Family Health Program in Ethiopia.I am project manager for Oromia region.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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