A study on training needs of female health workers in tribal area of Telangana, India

Abstract

IMR and MMR in tribal areas of Telangana are still worrisome. Often two main

reasons attributed to this problem were; low number of institutional deliveries

and deliveries in the absence of skilled health provider. This study intended to

know how skilled are the skilled health providers and it attempted to measure

the knowledge and skills of Female Health Workers in maternal care,

labour/child birth and neonatal care including communication skills. The

participants’ perceived training needs were also considered as important and

included in this study. Out of 700 notified scheduled villages, the participants

were covered approximately in 1:2 ratio (n=350). Nearly 80% (mean=281.5) of

the participants obtained scores below 50% and nearly 50% (mean=168.5) of

the participants have scored below 30%. The scores of 40% of the participants

reflected poor communication skills. Scores in all the areas found to be poor. Scores on skills in maternal care

were better than skills in childbirth and scores on skills in child birth were better than neonatal care. On the

scale of perceived training needs, skills in Labour/Child birth was given top priority by participants followed by

Neonatal care, Communication skills and Maternal care respectively.