Training Opportunities for Environmental Health Staff in Kenya: Too Few?

John Njuguna,Charles Muruka

doi:10.5923/j.phr.20120205.02

Abstract

Environ mental health officers play a key role in the delivery of preventive and promotive health services in Kenya. This is important given that Kenya is yet to make an epidemio logical transition and still grapples with preventable diseases. Training opportunities and promotion are key mot ivators for this cadre of health workers. An analysis of the January 2007 environmental health staff returns for two districts was done with a view of determin ing frequency of promotions and availability of train ing opportunities for environ mental health staff. Further details and clarifications were provided by the officer in charge of making staff returns. Only 18.4 % of staff who entered at the certificate level had managed to progress to the diploma level. On the contrary, 83% of those who entered at diploma managed to progress to the higher diploma stage. The mean period of promotion was 7.3 years. There was little difference between certificate and diplo ma holders in terms o f the period of p ro motion. More train ing opportunities should be availed to enable the certificate holders progress to the diplo ma stage and be elig ible for pro motion. These may include scholarships, distance learning and professional bridging exams. Pro motions should be regular and commensurate with one's qualificat ions.

Highlights

Health workers are people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health 1
The level of advancement is as follows: 18.4% o f certificate holders managed to advance to diploma and higher diplo ma stages, while 83.3% of dip lo ma holders managed to advance to the higher diplo ma stage
A small portion of certificate holders managed to advance to the diploma stage and 76.3% are still stuck at the certificate level

Summary

Introduction

Health workers are people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health 1. Sub Saharan Africa suffers from inadequate health workers 1, 2. Reasons for this shortage include migrat ion of health workers to work in developed countries due to better terms; poor working conditions and the HIV/AIDS scourge among others 1, 2. To achieve the health related Millenniu m Develop ment Goals 1, 3, there is need to scale up access to key interventions like antiretrovira l therapy, TB and mala ria treat ment. Kenya is a lower middle inco me country (LMIC) with an estimated population of 30 million people. It still grapples with preventable diseases, which account for appro ximately 80% of hospital attendance and 50% of which are water, sanitation and hygiene related 4. Environmental health o fficers are at the frontline of the public health practitioners 5

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion