Training of health workers
General information
Programme Title
Programme Objective
Refresher training of health workers (CHW’s, CO’s & Nurses) on integrated management of neonatal and childhood illnesses (IMNCI).
To equip health care staff with the knowledge and skills of management of common childhood illnesses using the IMNCI protocols recommended by ministry of health republic of south Sudan with resulted into;
Background Information
Every day, millions of parents seek health care for their sick children, taking them to hospitals, health centres, pharmacists, doctors and traditional healers. Surveys reveal that many sick children are not properly assessed and treated by these health care providers, and that their parents are poorly advised. At first-level health facilities in low-income countries, diagnostic supports such as radiology and laboratory services are minimal or non-existent, and drugs and equipment are often scarce. Limited supplies and equipment, combined with an irregular flow of patients, leave health workers at this level with few opportunities to practice complicated clinical procedures. Instead, they often rely on history and signs and symptoms to determine a course of management that makes the best use of the available resources.
These factors make providing quality care to sick children a serious challenge. WHO and UNICEF have addressed this challenge by developing a strategy called the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI). IMCI is an integrated approach to child health that focuses on the well-being of the whole child. IMCI aims to reduce death, illness and disability, and to promote improved growth and development among children under five years of age. IMCI includes both preventive and curative elements that are implemented by families and communities as well as by health facilities.
There are three strategies employed when using the IMCI approach with the first being to improve the case management skills of the health care staff which can only be done through regular in service trainings and refreshers which form the basis for this training. Refreshing health care workers on IMNCI will contribute to reducing child morbidity and mortality in Northern Liech state, CASS embarked on refresher training of health workers to equip them with knowledge and skills for better management of common childhood illnesses. This was done by using IMCI as an integrated approach to child health that focuses on the well-being of the whole child. Therefore, the trained groups were expected to cascade the knowledge acquired to improve the case management skills of the health care staff that will improve quality of services provided.
Below are the IMNCI strategies that the refresher will focus on;
- To improve the case management skills of the health care staff
- To improve the overall health systems by equipping the health care staff with the minimum standards required.
- To ensure improved family and community health practices