Development of the Operational Module for Capacity Building with Reference to the Essential Public Health Services of the Health Care Providers in Maharashtra

Abstract

The nurses and midwives are the backbone for the delivery of health care service. Their contribution to health care development is crucial to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Education and training are key investment tools for Capacity Building. This descriptive study aimed to identify the training needs of the health workers with regards to the Essential Public Health Services (EPHS) and develop the operational modules for the capacity building. The study was conducted at the selected Primary Health Centres and Sub-Centres in Maharashtra; 200 Health Care Providers were selected by non-probability convenience sampling technique. In phase 1, the Training Need Assessment was done and in 2nd phase, on the basis of training needs, the operational module on EPHS was developed and evaluated for the Capacity Building components. The results showed a signi cant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores, as the calculated t values (Knowledge = 24.14, Practices = 13.89, Attitude = 11.83) were greater than the table t value 1.96 at 0.05 signi cance level, corresponding to df = 199. The calculated ‘r’ values for Knowledge with Practices, Practice with Attitude and Attitude with Knowledge (p>0.05) indicated a positive correlation in pre-test. In post-test, the Practices were not correlated with the Knowledge and Attitude (p 0.05), whereas, Knowledge was correlated with the Attitude (p<0.05) Association of mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores with the selected demographic variables showed no signi cant association between the age, education, designation, nature of an appointment, area of work, work experience, building of PHCs/ SCs, travelling times (p 0.05). Whereas, there was a signi cant association between the training received and the post-test mean knowledge score (p<0.05) at 0.05 levels. Further, there was association between the age, education, work experience, and area of work with the post-test attitude score (p<0.05). To conclude, Operational Module based on the training needs, designing teaching–learning methods which focused on both theory and practices is an essential tool for Capacity Building in the Primary Health Care system.