Abstract
BackgroundThe Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project (MEDP) maintained a workforce of 235 Village Malaria Workers (VMWs) and 25 Malaria Field Coordinators (MFCs) to conduct disease surveillance, case management, IEC/BCC activities, capacity building, and monitoring of vector control activities in 1233 villages of Mandla, a high malaria endemic district of Madhya Pradesh in central India.MethodsThe induction training was conducted for 3 days on malaria diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and ethics. All trainings were assessed using a pre and post-training assessment questionnaire, with 70% marks as qualifying threshold. The questionnaire was divided into three thematic areas viz. general knowledge related to malaria (KAP), diagnosis and treatment (DXRX), and vector control (PVC).ResultsIn 2017, the project trained 330 candidates, followed by 243 and 247 candidates in 2018 and 2019, respectively. 94.3% candidates passed after a single training session. Almost all (95%) candidates showed improvement in knowledge after the training with 4% showing no effect and 1% showing deterioration. Progressive improvement in scores of 2017 cohort was seen along with significant improvement in performance of candidates in 2019 after the introduction of systematic monitoring and ‘shadowing’ training exercises.ConclusionThe project has successfully demonstrated the value of recruitment of workers from the study area, outcome of training, and performance evaluation of field staff in malaria elimination programme. This careful strategy of recruitment and training resulted in a work-force that was capable of independently conducting surveillance, case management, vector control, and Information Education Communication/Behaviour Change Communication (IEC/BCC). The learnings of this study, including the training modules and monitoring processes, can be used to train the health delivery staff for achieving national goal for malaria elimination by 2030. Similar training and monitoring programmes could also be used for other public health delivery programmes.
Highlights
The Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project (MEDP) maintained a workforce of 235 Village Malaria Workers (VMWs) and 25 Malaria Field Coordinators (MFCs) to conduct disease surveillance, case management, Institutional Ethical Clearance (IEC)/ BCC activities, capacity building, and monitoring of vector control activities in 1233 villages of Mandla, a high malaria endemic district of Madhya Pradesh in central India
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Irrespective of the challenges imposed on the health delivery systems, it has been observed that the trained human resource component is a key challenge in malaria elimination [5,6,7]
Summary
The Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project (MEDP) maintained a workforce of 235 Village Malaria Workers (VMWs) and 25 Malaria Field Coordinators (MFCs) to conduct disease surveillance, case management, IEC/ BCC activities, capacity building, and monitoring of vector control activities in 1233 villages of Mandla, a high malaria endemic district of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Ground implementation involves physically covering the entire target geographical area on a regular basis for active surveillance-based treatment of malaria. This is a resource intensive exercise, which is the reason for the human resources to be a major cost of the public health programmes. Recruitment, training, assessments, execution, monitoring, feedback, course-correction plays a crucial role [8, 9]. Assessment of these workers is critical to achieve malaria elimination goals throughout the world [10,11,12,13]
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