Effectiveness of Hands on Skill Training Programme Regarding Management of Specific Childhood Illnesses on Competencies of Female Health Workers:A Pilot Study

Female Health Workers (FHWs) are first level contact person in primary health care delivery system of India. They are responsible for providing advice to a large number of mothers and family members and also to provide treatment of selected illnesses. They are also accountable to identify children's illnesses and refer to doctors and hospital in time if the problem is serious. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of Hands on Skill Training Programme regarding management of specific childhood illnesses (respiratory tract infection, diarrhoea, fever, malnutrition, Ear infection, Eye infection, worm infestation and scabies) on competencies of Female Health Workers. Quasi-experimental study design was used to conduct this study. The study samples were ten FHWs (five subjects were in experimental group and remaining five were in control group) who were working under a selected community block of South Indian District. Pre-test on knowledge, attitude and skill of FHWs were conducted using the structured questionnaire, four point likert scale and observation checklists respectively. After the pre-test, Hands on Skill Training Programme was administered only to the experimental group. The post-test was conducted after four weeks for both the group. The findings showed that the mean knowledge score of experimental group during pre-test was 33.2 (±6.14) which was increased to 48 (±4.41) in post-test. Whereas, there was no difference between pre-test (32.4±2.3) and post-test (32±5.24) mean knowledge score among control group. The mean pre-test attitude score of the experimental group was 31.6 (±4.56) which was significantly increased to 39.4 (±2.6) during the post-test. There was no significant difference in mean attitude score between pre-test (31.8±3.96) and post-test (33.6±3.28) in control group. Similarly the mean skill score of experimental group has significant difference between pre-test (51.6±9.12) and post-test (89.4±5.41). But the mean pre-test and post-test skill score of control group was 48.4 (±6.87) and 49 (±7.71) respectively. There was a significant increase (P<0.05) in the competencies of FHWs in experimental group than in control group.