IDEAS Phase 2 project – Village Health Worker Scheme sustainability study in Gombe State, Nigeria: Protocol and topic guides

Abstract

The IDEAS project sought to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies by understanding the factors that would contribute to making a Village Health Worker Scheme sustainable at scale across Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria, where survival rates for mothers and babies are low compared with many other low and middle-income countries, in part due to a shortage of trained health care workers and to low levels of community awareness about health care services available. The scheme was initially introduced by the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency with implementation support from a national NGO, Society for Family Health, and external financial support. This collection comprises the protocol and semi-structured topic guides for three rounds of qualitative, in-depth interviews with key stakeholders from the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, and Society for Family Health in Sept 2017, Jan-Feb 2018 and Nov-Dec 2018. Focus group discussions were also held in Sept 2017 and Nov-Dec 2018 with local government area health service staff who now oversee the day to day running of the scheme, village health workers from two wards in the state, the primary health care staff who supervise them and members of the Ward Development Committees – local leaders responsible for community health. The final round of data collection also included four additional focus group discussions with women who had received support from village health workers and their children’s fathers.