Mobile Phone Impacts and Utility for Nicaraguan Community Health Workers

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are front-line health care providers to remote rural communities in Nicaragua.  For the past three years, volunteer CHWs in a remote region of rural Nicaragua, have been using mobile telephones and SMS texting to communicate with nurses and physicians who are located at the regional hospital.  CHWs communicate with the nurse or physician for direction managing health problems of community members.  The CHWs text non-emergent health findings and call the nurse or physician when there is an emergency. 

Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to identify the impact and utility of mobile phones for CHWs supporting the health of rural Nicaraguan communities.  Data were collected using one-to-one CHW interviews.

Results:  A transcript-based content analysis was used to analyze data generated from CHW interviews.  The analysis generated three themes that described how the mobile phones enabled the CHWs to become valuable health team members, supported the CHWs’ community health and social organizations, and provided personal benefit to the CHWs.

Conclusions: While linking remote rural communities to health care providers, equipping volunteer CHWs with mobile phones provides a source of empowerment and partnership in meeting communities’ health needs. Efforts should be made to enhance mobile phone programs and reduce technical barriers for CHWs in remote rural areas of Nicaragua.