The Influence of Observation and Setting On Community Health Workers Practices
Author: Rowe, SY
Date Published: 2006
The objective of this article is to determine whether results from an evaluation that involved observation of community health workers while they performed patient consultations in a hospital reflected normal everyday practices. The study was designed to compare two samples of medical consultations with sick children. These consultations performed during an evaluation in which we observed community health workers in a hospital in-patient and outpatient department from Feb. to March 2001 and consultations performed under no observation in villages and documented in clinical registers within 90 days before the hospital evaluation. The study found that community health workers made treatment errors less frequently when they were observed in a hospital in patient or outpatient department than when they were not observed in the community. Evaluations that involve the observation of community health workers in a hospital setting might overestimate the quality of care that they normally give in their villages.
Date Published: 2006
The objective of this article is to determine whether results from an evaluation that involved observation of community health workers while they performed patient consultations in a hospital reflected normal everyday practices. The study was designed to compare two samples of medical consultations with sick children. These consultations performed during an evaluation in which we observed community health workers in a hospital in-patient and outpatient department from Feb. to March 2001 and consultations performed under no observation in villages and documented in clinical registers within 90 days before the hospital evaluation. The study found that community health workers made treatment errors less frequently when they were observed in a hospital in patient or outpatient department than when they were not observed in the community. Evaluations that involve the observation of community health workers in a hospital setting might overestimate the quality of care that they normally give in their villages.
