Rural and remote health最新文献

{"title":"Recruiting the next generation of rural healthcare practitioners: the impact of an online mentoring program on career and educational goals in rural youth.","authors":"Juliet Oshiro,&nbsp;Katherine Wisener,&nbsp;Angela L Nash,&nbsp;Blair Stanley,&nbsp;Sandra Jarvis-Selinger","doi":"10.22605/RRH8216","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH8216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>There is increasing recognition that encouraging and supporting rural youth to pursue healthcare careers could be a promising strategy for addressing shortages of rural healthcare practitioners. Although rural students in health science programs often return to their home communities to practice, they continue to be underrepresented in these programs. Geographic isolation and small community sizes create barriers to entry for rural students, including a lack of educational and outreach services and a smaller pool of role models with experience in pursuing health science careers. Online mentoring has the potential to overcome these barriers by connecting rural youth with experienced role models from outside their communities; therefore, we tested whether this type of intervention could be used to increase interest in and guide rural youth towards rural healthcare careers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>From 2016 to 2020, our intervention, Rural eMentoring BC, matched 364 youth in rural British Columbia to near-peer mentors enrolled in health science programs. Through an online platform, dyads discussed career and educational options and pathways through a semistructured curriculum consisting of eight units. To determine the likelihood of mentees pursuing a career in rural health care after participating in the program, we deployed pre- and post-unit surveys that evaluated their interest in the following areas: healthcare careers, post-secondary education, working rurally, and finding allies. After completing the program, 209 mentees were invited to complete a program evaluation, which consisted of short-answer questions intended to capture their overall impressions of the program.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>After completing the career exploration unit, 63 students (out of the 103 who completed the unit) indicated that they were interested in healthcare careers, compared to 37 before. However, students' attitudes towards post-secondary education and finding allies did not change after completing those units, nor did their opinion of working rurally (although there was no unit dedicated to this topic). Encouragingly though, most already held positive opinions of these areas before entering the program. Of the 41 students who took our program evaluation, most viewed the program and their mentors favorably; discussion topics they found most useful included career exploration, learning life skills, and learning how to prepare for, and what to expect from, post-secondary education.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study suggests that online mentoring can direct rural youths' career interests toward, and provide a refreshing approach to imparting information about, healthcare professions. Although its longitudinal impacts need to be studied, the changes in attitudes and gains in knowledge observed while participating in this program put these students on the right track for eventually transitioning to health","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41149306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social construction of risk and prevention practices related to Aedes mosquito-borne disease in an endemic municipality in Colombia.","authors":"Claudia Margarita Cortés García,&nbsp;Claudia Milena Hormiga Sánchez,&nbsp;Johan Sebastián Ariza Abril,&nbsp;Yaneth Stefania Becerra Fajardo","doi":"10.22605/RRH7695","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH7695","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>This article analyzes risk discourses around dengue, zika and chikungunya constructed by lay people, community leaders and disease control experts from the fields of medical anthropology, medical sociology, and public health.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A qualitative ethnographic study was conducted in a municipality in Colombia (December 2016 and January 2018) with semistructured and open-ended interviews, informal dialogues, and fieldwork journal observations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study found a mismatch in risk discourse about vector-borne diseases among health officials, lay people, and community leaders. These discourses are linked to the sociocultural contexts in which people live, and offer particular ways of giving meaning and acting in the face of disease prevention.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings show a multisituated risk that refers to the inside and outside of homes; and the prevention practices mentioned by different actors, in which a continuity of tensions between lay people, leaders and government officials can be observed.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10210061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Massive testing in the Galapagos Islands and low positivity rate to control SARS-CoV-2 spread during the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic: a story of success for Ecuador and South America.","authors":"Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta,&nbsp;Diana Morales-Jadan,&nbsp;Alberto Velez,&nbsp;Patricio Vega-Marino,&nbsp;Byron Freire-Paspuel,&nbsp;Maria Belen Paredes-Espinosa,&nbsp;Angel S Rodriguez Pazmiño,&nbsp;Bernardo Castro-Rodriguez,&nbsp;Paulina Castillo,&nbsp;Carlos Masaquiza,&nbsp;Ismar Rivera-Olivero,&nbsp;Esteban Ortiz-Prado,&nbsp;Aquiles Rodrigo Henriquez-Trujillo,&nbsp;Barbara Coronel,&nbsp;Heberson Galvis,&nbsp;Tatiana Jaramillo,&nbsp;Tannya Lozada,&nbsp;Marylin Cruz,&nbsp;Miguel Angel Garcia-Bereguiain","doi":"10.22605/RRH7643","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH7643","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, countries like Ecuador, Peru and Colombia experienced chaotic scenarios with public health systems collapsing and lack of testing capacity to control the spread of the virus. In main cities like Guayaquil in Ecuador, dramatic situations such as corpses in the streets were internationally broadcasted.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>While the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating South America, SARS-CoV-2 transmission was successfully managed in the Galapagos Islands due to the implementation of a massive screening strategy including hospitalized and community-dwelling populations, and travel restrictions facilitated by its geographical location (972 km from the Ecuadorian continental territory). Floreana Island was one of the few locations in the world that remained COVID-19 free during 2020.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the data related to SARS-CoV-2 massive testing campaigns from April to September 2020 in the Galapagos Islands, and found this territory to have the lowest positivity rate in South America (4.8-6.7%) and the highest testing ratio among Ecuadorian provinces (9.87% of the population, which is 2480 out of 25 124 inhabitants) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This story of success was possible because of the interinstitutional collaboration between the regional government of Galapagos Islands (Consejo de Gobierno), the local authorities (Gobiernos Autonomos Descentralizados de Santa Cruz, San Cristobal and Isabela), the regional authorities from Ecuadorian Ministry of Health, the Agencia de Regulaci&oacute;n y Control de la Bioseguridad y Cuarentena para Gal&aacute;pagos and Universidad de Las Am&eacute;ricas.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41128967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rethinking the distribution of sleep services: discrepancy of obstructive sleep apnoea in rural compared with metropolitan men in Australia - a large national survey.","authors":"Lauren A Booker,&nbsp;Brad Hodge,&nbsp;Timothy C Skinner","doi":"10.22605/RRH7704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH7704","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Geographical location is increasingly recognised as a contributor to health inequity, with barriers including travel distances and a shortage of healthcare services. Individuals living in rural areas are known to have increased illness and comorbidities. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is one such illness. OSA is a condition where a person repeatedly pauses breathing while asleep due to their airways becoming wholly or partially blocked, and it is associated with various chronic diseases. Exploration into the effects of these barriers on OSA is limited. This study explores the proportion of diagnosed and undiagnosed OSA in men living in rural compared to metropolitan areas.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This was a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of the Australian Ten to Men dataset. The present study looked at men aged over 18 years diagnosed with OSA in their lifetime from wave 2 (n=10 513) and wave 3 (n=7262) of the dataset. Wave 2 data were collected between November 2015 and May 2016, and wave 3 between July 2020 and February 2021.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In wave 2, a higher proportion of rural men were diagnosed with OSA than metropolitan men (OR, 1.47, 95%CI 1.22-1.78, p<0.001), but not regional men. In addition, a significantly higher proportion of men in rural areas were at risk for OSA than metropolitan men (37.7% v 32.6%, p<0.0001). However, men living rurally were older, had higher BMI and lower socioeconomic status. Location was no longer a significant predictor of OSA after controlling for age, BMI and socioeconomic status. In wave 3, rate of diagnosis of OSA during the lifetime was no longer significantly associated with location (p=0.057) or being diagnosed with OSA in the previous 12 months (p=0.062).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study highlights the need to ensure adequate services in rural areas, given the higher proportion of men diagnosed with, or at risk of, OSA in rural areas. OSA is also associated with an increase risk of comorbidities such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, which are diseases also seen more prevalently in rural men. Rethinking the distribution of healthcare services will go some way to addressing this problem.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10228362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vulnerability among rural older adults in southern Brazil: population-based study.","authors":"Tatiane Nogueira Gonzalez,&nbsp;Cristina Dos Santos Paludo,&nbsp;Rodrigo Dalke Meucci","doi":"10.22605/RRH7714","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH7714","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of vulnerability, and to identify the associated factors of vulnerability among rural community-dwelling older adults living in the municipality of Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This was a cross-sectional, population-based study of a sample of individuals aged 60 years or older. Data from the first follow-up of the EpiRural Cohort Study (2018-2019) were used. Vulnerability was assessed using the Vulnerable Elders Survey (VES-13). The maximum score is 10 and older adults with scores of 3 or more are classified as vulnerable. Poisson regression with robust adjustment of variance was used for crude and adjusted analyses. For the analysis of the associated factors, a theoretical model was constructed with three hierarchical levels. The variables were adjusted in relation to each other within each level; those with a significance level of 0.20 or less were included in the regression model and adjusted to a higher level, with a subsequent level of significance of 5%.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The overall prevalence of vulnerability was 40.8% (95%CI 37.5-44.3). Vulnerability was more prevalent among women (PR=1.45; 95%CI 1.23-1.71), older adults who did not work (PR=1.70; 95%CI 1.17-2.45), those who lived without a partner (PR=1.26; 95%CI 1.07-1.47), those with diabetes (PR=1.23; 95%CI 1.03-1.48), those with depression (PR=1.21; 95%CI 1.02-1.42), those with osteoporosis (PR=1.38; 95%CI 1.15-1.66), and those with sarcopenia (PR=1.67; 95%CI 1.38-2.02).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Vulnerability is common among rural community-dwelling older adults and is associated with sociodemographic and health characteristics.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10589646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diarrheal disease and associations with water access and sanitation in Indigenous Shawi children along the Armanayacu River basin in Peru.","authors":"Paola A Torres-Slimming,&nbsp;Cesar P Carcamo,&nbsp;Carlee J Wright,&nbsp;Guillermo Lancha,&nbsp;Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo,&nbsp;Nia King,&nbsp;James D Ford,&nbsp;Patricia J Garcia,&nbsp;Sherilee L Harper","doi":"10.22605/RRH7198","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH7198","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Diarrheal disease, particularly in children under 5 years old, remains a global health challenge due to its high prevalence and chronic health consequences. Public health interventions that reduce diarrheal disease risk include improving access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. Although Peru achieved the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators for water access, less progress was achieved on sanitation. Furthermore, many Indigenous Peoples were overlooked in the MDG indicators, resulting in a prioritization of Indigenous Peoples in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of childhood diarrhea, characterize access to water and sanitation, and determine the association of childhood diarrhea with water access and sanitation indicators in 10 Shawi Indigenous communities along the Armanayacu River in the Peruvian Amazon.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional survey (n=82) that captured data on diarrheal disease, sociodemographic variables, and water and sanitation exposures was conducted in 10 Shawi communities. Nutritional status of children under 5 was also assessed via physical examination. Descriptive and comparative statistics were conducted.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A small proportion (n=7; 8.54%) of participating children reported an episode of diarrhea in the previous month. Almost half (46.30%) of participating children had stunting, wasting, or both. Although not statistically significant, children living in households that used latrines were 4.29 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-18.19) more likely to report an episode of diarrhea than children living in households that practiced open defecation. Although not statistically significant, children living in households that used water treatment methods were 4.25 times (95%CI 0.54-33.71) more likely to report an episode of diarrhea than children living in households that did not.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The prevalence of childhood diarrhea was lower for Shawi than for other Amazon areas. The higher prevalence of childhood diarrhea in households that used latrines and water treatments warrants further investigation into local risk and protective factors. These Shawi communities scored low for the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme indicators for water and sanitation, indicating that they should be prioritized in future water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives. Research will be required to understand and incorporate local Indigenous values and cultural practices into water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives to maximize intervention uptake and effectiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41144840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A protocol for a systematic review of randomised evaluations of strategies to improve recruitment of rural participants to randomised controlled trials.","authors":"Heidi R Green, Charlotte Murray, Lucy Thompson, Naomi Young, Shaun Treweek, Philip Wilson","doi":"10.22605/RRH7793","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH7793","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>People living rurally face health inequities fuelled by social exclusion, access to and awareness of health services, and poor transport links. In order to improve the acceptability, accessibility and applicability of health and care interventions, it is important that clinical trial participant populations include people living rurally. Identifying strategies that improve recruitment of rural participants to trials will support trialists, reduce research waste and contribute to alleviating health inequalities experienced by rural patients. The objective of the review is to quantify the effects of randomised evaluations of strategies to recruit rural participants to randomised controlled trials.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The following databases will be searched for relevant studies: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science All, EBSCO CINAHL, Proquest, ERIC, IngentaConnect, Web of Science SSCI and AHCI, and Scopus. Any randomised evaluation of a recruitment intervention aiming to improve recruitment of rural participants to a randomised trial will be included. We will not apply any restriction on publication date, language or journal. The primary, and only, outcome of our review will be the proportion of participants recruited to a randomised controlled trial. Two reviewers will independently screen abstracts and titles for eligible studies, and then full texts of relevant records will be reviewed by the same two reviewers. Where disagreements cannot be resolved through discussion, a third reviewer will adjudicate.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We will assess the methodological quality of individual studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and the GRADE approach will be applied to determine the certainty of the evidence within each comparison.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This systematic review will quantify the effects of randomised evaluations of strategies to recruit rural participants to trials. Our findings will contribute to the evidence base to support trial teams to recruit a participant population that represents society as a whole, informing future research and playing a part to alleviate health inequalities between rural and urban populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10213300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Barriers to the success of COVID-19 immunisation programs in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea.","authors":"Belinda Flanagan,&nbsp;Kay Nevill,&nbsp;Camilla Sabok,&nbsp;Mimi Zilliacus,&nbsp;Jonathon Sward","doi":"10.22605/RRH7883","DOIUrl":"10.22605/RRH7883","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Although guidance exists for the public health activities recommended for the management of COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea (PNG), community vaccine hesitancy has been identified as a major challenge. Vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, people living in rural and remote communities, the socioeconomically disadvantaged and those with certain pre-existing medical conditions are disproportionally affected by COVID-19. This project aimed to address the reasons for community vaccine hesitancy in New Ireland Province, PNG.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To understand the reasons for vaccine hesitancy and intent to vaccinate within the community, a mixed-methods approach was used in conjunction with two methods of data collection. First, a survey was provided to community members. The survey was adapted from two pre-existing validated survey instruments, the Oxford COVID-19 Hesitancy Scale and the Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence and Complacency Scale. Community leaders and healthcare workers were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to provide a more detailed response of their experience of vaccine acceptance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 181 participants from New Ireland Province were surveyed. Although vaccine awareness among the cohort was high (86.7%), overall uptake of vaccination was low (7.2%). Despite this, only 27.6% of participants indicated they would receive the vaccine should it be made available to them. Participants had concerns regarding vaccine safety, vaccine advice, and the authenticity and origins of the COVID-19 virus itself. Religious and political influence compounded the mistrust community members had for vaccine recommendations. Some community members stated their community had suffered for many years with serious illness, expressing a fatalistic acceptance of the virus, as they do other illnesses.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Vaccine hesitancy is a significant problem that has the potential to negatively affect population-level health. An urgent focused effort to strengthen immunisation programs in PNG is evident. Preventative primary health care is a national priority; however, for the successful delivery of vaccination initiatives, well-formed immunisation programs that include education that will dispel myths and misinformation are required.</p>","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41150048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The urgent need for firearm suicide prevention research in the rural US.","authors":"Eric W Lundstrom,&nbsp;Jacob K Pence,&nbsp;Gordon S Smith","doi":"10.22605/RRH8267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH8267","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9969769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'Community health workers are unable to work because they don't have supervisors' - mid-level providers' experiences of a CHW program in rural South Africa.","authors":"Linnea Stansert Katzen,&nbsp;Mark Tomlinson,&nbsp;Christina A Laurenzi,&nbsp;Ncumisa Waluwalu,&nbsp;Mary Jane Rotheram Borus,&nbsp;Sarah Skeen","doi":"10.22605/RRH7690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH7690","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The World Health Organization has called for more than 4 million community health workers (CHWs) globally; yet there are gaps in the evidence of CHWs' impact where studies have not had consistent results. South Africa is currently investing in CHW programs. However, there are significant concerns about the implementation and effectiveness of the program.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We interviewed mid-level supervisors involved in eight rural clinics in a deeply rural South African municipality to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the CHW programs currently being implemented. Half of these clinics were part of a program providing enhanced supervision to CHWs, and the remainder were operating as usual. We hypothesized that stakeholders would provide valuable insights on how to improve the implementation of CHW programs. Fourteen interviews with supervisors from three levels of clinic and non-governmental organizations were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and translated from isiXhosa to English, and thematically analysed using ATLAS.ti.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two overarching themes emerged: challenges at the national CHW program level (loss of political support, inadequacy of supervision and access to resources, human resource considerations); and experiences of the enhanced-supervision model provided (engagement and buy-in, link between CHW program and healthcare facilities, improvements through the intervention). Our findings suggest that CHWs operate largely unsupported, with limited access to training, equipment and supervision. The enhanced-supervision intervention appeared to mitigate some of these shortfalls. To make CHW programs efficient, we need to recruit CHWs based on social and administrative competence (rather than network referrals), provide improved higher quality training, provide more resources, especially equipment and transport, and ensure that CHWs receive supportive supervision that goes beyond simply administrative supervision. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the intervention in this study has somewhat mitigated these challenges through a package of supportive supervision and additional resources, highlighting the importance of stakeholder engagement and buy-in. It is clear that the governmental CHW program has many challenges - a number of which were temporarily mitigated by the intervention tested in this research's parent study. A list of recommendations for practice was developed from this work. First, contracts and reimbursements are important for CHW motivation, and are seen as essential prerequisites for CHW program success. Second, CHWs and other stakeholders must be involved in the design and implementation of the CHW program. Third, good-quality training and refresher trainings for CHWs is critical. Fourth, access to equipment such as scales is needed. Fifth, transport is critical in rural areas to access patients in remote areas. Lastly, supportive ","PeriodicalId":21460,"journal":{"name":"Rural and remote health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10133092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}