270454 Educating village health workers in rural Cambodia

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Karen McClure, DNP, CRNP, RNC-OB , Medical Department, Mission to the World, Lawrenceville, GA
Cambodia today still struggles to deliver healthcare to its people following the devastation brought by the Marxist Khmer Rouge during the late 1970s. A Village Health Worker Program was devised in an effort to ease this struggle in rural Cambodia. Twenty five students from 23 different villages in Cambodia's Kampot Province received 11 days of participatory training using Community Health Evangelism (CHE) teaching materials to prepare them to deliver basic healthcare to their respective villages through following the already successful Jamkhed Model. The Jamkhed Model is a 3-tiered approach that involves the community, a Mobile Health Team, and referrals to a healthcare center or hospital. The students were trained and competencies were tested in 10 basic healthcare areas. Students demonstrated 100% competence in six of the 10 areas. Three areas (conducting a patient exam, pulse and blood pressure measurement) showed less than 90% competence. The Village Health Workers meet with the Mobile Health Team at least monthly for continued training and ongoing evaluation of competencies. A plan for continuing education is under development. This pilot project suggests that training improves the competence of a Village Health Worker and may lead to improved health outcomes. Future research is needed to determine whether VHW provision of care and community empowerment will affect outcomes in the target population.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the implementation sequence of a Village Health Worker (VHW) Program in a developing country 2. Describe the Jamkhed Model 3. Discuss the benefits and challenges of VHW training

Keywords: Community Health Promoters, Health Workers Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Karen McClure is a Nurse Practitioner with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice. She has served on faculty at University of Maryland and has over 30 years of nursing clinical, leadership, management, and teaching experience. Her more than 17 years of international experience includes teaching and mentoring students, program and curriculum development and disaster relief. Her professional areas of interest include maternal and child health as well as community development and promoting health in developing countries.
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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