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5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting

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Authors: Daniel Palazuelos et al.

Despite decades of experience with community health workers (CHWs) in a wide variety of global health projects, there is no established conceptual framework that structures how implementers and researchers can understand, study and improve their respective programs based on lessons learned by other CHW programs. Engaging a large group of implementers, researchers and the best available literature, the 5-SPICE framework was refined and then applied to a selection of CHW programs. Insights gleaned from the case study method were summarized in a tabular format named the ‘5×5-SPICE chart’. This format graphically lists the ways in which essential CHW program elements interact, both positively and negatively, in the implementation field. The 5-SPICE framework is a novel instrument that can be used to guide discussions about CHW projects. Insights from this process can help guide quality improvement efforts, or be used as hypothesis that will form the basis of a program’s research agenda. Recent experience with research protocols embedded into successfully implemented projects demonstrates how such hypothesis can be rigorously tested.

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Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Program Design, Program Management, Standards and evidence-based guidelines

Resource Type: Best practices, Case studies

Year: 2013

Region:

Country: Global

Publisher May Restrict Access: No

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