Abstract
IntroductionReliable health information is essential for decision making in the healthcare system. Information management in Kenya was considered the weakest area under the Health Information System pillar mainly due to inadequate health workers capacity. The study therefore aimed at assessing health workers skills and current training needs for information management in the selected healthcare facilities.MethodsCross-section research design was adopted and both purposive sampling technique and censuses were used to establish the study participants. Analysis was done using SPSS version 20 and results were presented in tables, charts and graphs.ResultsIt was established that capacity building was usually undertaken through on-job trainings i.e. 85.1% (103) health workers had on-job training on filling of data collection tools and only 10% (13) had received formal classroom training on the same. Further, only 9.1% (11) health workers had received information management training while 90.9% (110) had not received such training. Health workers demonstrated below average skills on information management i.e. only 17.4% (21) could check for data accuracy, only 16.5% (20) could compute trends from bar charts and only 16.5% (20) could transform the data they collected into meaningful information for use.ConclusionThe researcher recommended that healthcare facilities management teams develop a competency based framework for defining the desired skill mix for information management and have a yearly Training Needs Assessment for assessing training needs for information management among the health workers.
Highlights
Reliable health information is essential for decision making in the healthcare system
Further human resource mapping done in Kenya in 2004, showed that 46% of staff working on HIS tasks had no professional training on Health Information System Management, compromising the capacity of the healthcare institutions to generate quality information for policy, planning and monitoring of the healthcare system activities [3]
Health workers were further tested on their ability to use a computer for information management at their various work stations and the findings were a follows; majority 51 (42.1%) of the respondents rated themselves as intermediate users, 11 (9.1%) were new or inexperienced users and only 6 (5.0%) were experienced users
Summary
Reliable health information is essential for decision making in the healthcare system. The Government of Kenya report [3] pointed out that data and information management in Kenya was considered as the weakest area under the HIS pillar This was attributed by inadequate skills on information management and training of health workers that was not focused towards information management activities. Further human resource mapping done in Kenya in 2004, showed that 46% of staff working on HIS tasks had no professional training on Health Information System Management, compromising the capacity of the healthcare institutions to generate quality information for policy, planning and monitoring of the healthcare system activities [3]. Without adequate knowledge on training needs, it was found to be impossible to practically develop a customized program for resolving knowledge gaps on information among the health workers
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