Knowledge, skills, and training community health workers require to contribute to an interprofessional learning initiative

Abstract

Background A health sciences faculty established an interprofessional learning initiative in the southern Free State, South Africa. This initiative offers learning opportunities to fourth-year students in health and rehabilitation sciences, nursing, and clinical medicine, whilst supporting rural healthcare services. The role of community health workers in this initiative is often limited to enabling students to enter the community setting. The authors presupposed that these health workers require certain knowledge, skills and training to contribute to this initiative. Aim To describe the knowledge, skills, and training community health workers require to contribute to a faculty of health sciences interprofessional learning initiative. Setting The study was conducted at the rural and university facilities of a health sciences faculty. Methods This qualitative study used five nominal group discussions and purposive sampling to obtain data from community health workers (n = 26), interprofessional learning students (n = 22), interprofessional learning coordinators (n = 3), and interprofessional learning facilitators (n = 5). Analysis of the multiple-group data was done according to accepted nominal group technique practices. Findings Five top priorities related to required knowledge, skills, and training were identified across groups. Knowledge priorities were, for example, the Road to Health chart (average 5.58), danger signs (3.63), and basic knowledge on pertinent conditions (2.82). Skills included wound care (4.17), vital signs (3.09), and communication (2.63), whilst training on health promotion (3.09), emergency (3.00) and wound care (2.92), were listed. Contribution The findings contribute to the development of a facilitator guide containing content tailored to enable community health workers to contribute to this interprofessional learning initiative.