| Title |
Improving the performance of community health workers in Swaziland: findings from a qualitative study
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Human Resources for Health, September 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12960-017-0236-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Pascal Geldsetzer, Jan-Walter De Neve, Chantelle Boudreaux, Till Bärnighausen, Thomas J. Bossert |
| Abstract |
The performance of community health workers (CHWs) in Swaziland has not yet been studied despite the existence of a large national CHW program in the country. This qualitative formative research study aimed to inform the design of future interventions intended to increase the performance of CHW programs in Swaziland. Specifically, focusing on four CHW programs, we aimed to determine what potential changes to their program CHWs and CHW program managers perceive as likely leading to improved performance of the CHW cadre. The CHW cadres studied were the rural health motivators, mothers-to-mothers (M2M) mentors, HIV expert clients, and a community outreach team for HIV. We conducted semi-structured, face-to-face qualitative interviews with all (15) CHW program managers and a purposive sample of 54 CHWs. Interview transcripts were analyzed using conventional content analysis to identify categories of changes to the program that participants perceived would result in improved CHW performance. Across the four cadres, participants perceived the following four changes to likely lead to improved CHW performance: (i) increased monetary compensation of CHWs, (ii) a more reliable supply of equipment and consumables, (iii) additional training, and (iv) an expansion of CHW responsibilities to cover a wider array of the community's healthcare needs. The supervision of CHWs and opportunities for career progression were rarely viewed as requiring improvement to increase CHW performance. While this study is unable to provide evidence on whether the suggested changes would indeed lead to improved CHW performance, these views should nonetheless inform program reforms in Swaziland because CHWs and CHW program managers are familiar with the day-to-day operations of the program and the needs of the target population. In addition, program reforms that agree with their views would likely experience a higher degree of buy-in from these frontline health workers. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 1 | 33% |
| Unknown | 2 | 67% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 3 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 143 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 143 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 20 | 14% |
| Researcher | 18 | 13% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 13% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 14 | 10% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 8 | 6% |
| Other | 25 | 17% |
| Unknown | 40 | 28% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing and Health Professions | 33 | 23% |
| Social Sciences | 18 | 13% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 17 | 12% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 4 | 3% |
| Unspecified | 4 | 3% |
| Other | 19 | 13% |
| Unknown | 48 | 34% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 September 2017.
All research outputs
#15,745,807
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from Human Resources for Health
#1,040
of 1,261 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#178,793
of 325,430 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Human Resources for Health
#24
of 27 outputs
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