فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Community health officers (CHOs) are a newly introduced cadre of mid‑levelhealth‑care providers who will man the health and wellness centers under Ayushman Bharat Missionin India. Need‑based training will help them fulfil their role in early diagnosis, treatment, and referralof tuberculosis (TB) patients. The present study identified the gaps in the awareness about TB in aheterogeneous group of trainees and addressed them through need‑based training.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A before and after the study was carried out in 110 trainee CHOs atRural Medical College, Loni. In‑depth interviews were conducted with public health experts and focusgroup discussion was conducted with trainees to gain the quality inputs. Structured questionnairesbased on training objectives specifically pertaining to TB were designed. Training was provided withan emphasis on addressing the gaps identified in the pretest. Posttest evaluation was done at theend of the training to assess its effectiveness. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version.17.0 (Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).RESULTS: The mean pretest score was 15.15 (standard deviation [SD] = 3.55) which improvedafter 6 months training to 24.01 (SD = 1.223), i.e., from 60% to 96%. There was highly significantimprovement in overall knowledge score of trainees (t = 28.124, df = 109, P < 0.001). There wasa statistically significant improvement in scores of all topics at the end of 6 months training in bothNursing and Ayurved graduates. Except for knowledge regarding the treatment of multidrug‑resistantTB (P = 0.004), knowledge about all other topics was comparable in nursing and Ayurved graduatesat the end.CONCLUSIONS: Needs assessment proved effective in identifying the gaps in knowledge and skillsof interdisciplinary trainee CHOs. Medical colleges with expertise in teaching, training, and healthservice provision can work with the public health system to provide a model for rapid upgrading andcapacity building to meet health‑care challenges such as TB.