Journal article
Ongoing training of community health workers in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic scoping review of the literature
- Abstract:
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Objectives Understanding the current landscape of ongoing training for community health workers (CHWs) in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) is important both for organisations responsible for their training, as well as researchers and policy makers. This scoping review explores this under-researched area by mapping the current delivery implementation and evaluation of ongoing training provision for CHWs in LMICs.
Design Systematic scoping review.
Data sources MEDLINE, Embase, AMED, Global Health, Web of Science, Scopus, ASSIA, LILACS, BEI and ERIC.
Study selection Original studies focusing on the provision of ongoing training for CHWs working in a country defined as low income and middle income according to World Bank Group 2012 classification of economies.
Results The scoping review found 35 original studies that met the inclusion criteria. Ongoing training activities for CHWs were described as supervision (n=19), inservice or refresher training (n=13) or a mixture of both (n=3). Although the majority of studies emphasised the importance of providing ongoing training, several studies reported no impact of ongoing training on performance indicators. The majority of ongoing training was delivered inperson; however, four studies reported the use of mobile technologies to support training delivery. The outcomes from ongoing training activities were measured and reported in different ways, including changes in behaviour, attitudes and practice measured in a quantitative manner (n=16), knowledge and skills (n=6), qualitative assessments (n=5) or a mixed methods approach combining one of the aforementioned modalities (n=8).
Conclusions This scoping review highlights the diverse range of ongoing training for CHWs in LMICs. Given the expansion of CHW programmes globally, more attention should be given to the design, delivery, monitoring and sustainability of ongoing training from a health systems strengthening perspective.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 874.3KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021467
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- BMJ Open More from this journal
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 4
- Article number:
- e021467
- Publication date:
- 2018-04-28
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-04-10
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2044-6055
- Pmid:
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29705769
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:846325
- UUID:
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uuid:a973e452-b46f-47a3-be8a-43b9c4fe80e1
- Local pid:
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pubs:846325
- Source identifiers:
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846325
- Deposit date:
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2019-04-26
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- O’Donovan et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
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© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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