CHW programs are receiving more attention globally, but face numerous challenges, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Based on case studies and previous literature, this review outlines how to design and implement large scale CHW programs. The review also highlights five potential challenges in implementing large-scale CHW programs. … [Read more...] about Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 1. Introduction: Tensions confronting large-scale CHW programme
Scale-up
Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 6. Recruitment, training, and continuing education
CHWs are providing an increasing range of care, managing more complex health issues, collaborating more closely with other health workers and the communities without explicitly defined roles. This paper explores key themes of (1) professionalism, (2) quality and performance, and (3) scaling up for training of CHWs in response to these enhanced and changing roles. This review … [Read more...] about Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 6. Recruitment, training, and continuing education
The origins of Ethiopia’s primary health care expansion: The politics of state building and health system strengthening
Ethiopia received recognition as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s models of primary care, due in part to training and deploying over 30,000 Health Extension Workers since 2004. Kevin Croke discusses factors enabling the country to implement the program at scale. … [Read more...] about The origins of Ethiopia’s primary health care expansion: The politics of state building and health system strengthening
Learning from community health worker programs, big and small
CHW programs demonstrate the potential for great impacts on population health, but interventions sometimes fail as a result of poor transitioning from program piloting to full scale implementation. Stephen Hodgins outlines some of the reasons these programs fail or succeed. He recommends expansions of research conducted both during intervention piloting and also at broad … [Read more...] about Learning from community health worker programs, big and small
Surgical symptomatic knowledge among medical staff and community health workers in rural Cambodia: a descriptive study for workforce improvement
Researchers distributed a questionnaire in rural Cambodia to assess the level of surgical knowledge among physicians, CHWs, and community members. The median scores for surgical symptomatic knowledge was 8 for medical staff, 8 for CHWs, and 8.5 for villagers. The study’s authors concluded that medical staff in rural areas needed to be trained to improve knowledge and double the … [Read more...] about Surgical symptomatic knowledge among medical staff and community health workers in rural Cambodia: a descriptive study for workforce improvement