EFFECT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON PATIENT REFERRAL BY PUBLIC PRIMARY HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN MUSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA TO STATE GENERAL HOSPITALS

 EFFECT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON PATIENT REFERRAL BY PUBLIC PRIMARY HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN MUSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA TO STATE GENERAL HOSPITALS

Abstract

Objective: To determine the knowledge, attitude and referral
practices of primary health care workers on patient referral in
Mushin and Surulere Local Government Areas and by intervening in
Mushin Local Government Area determine the effect of education
and training on patient referral by primary health care workers in
Mushin Local Government Area.
Context: The primary health care programme is not making appreciable progress in Nigeria as shown by deterioration of indicators like the immunization coverage. Poor patient referral between different levels had been identified among others as the cause of the lack of progress in the programme.
Methods: The study took place in Mushin and Surulere Local Government Areas. The respondents were primary health care workers that see patients and were therefore in the position to refer patients to higher levels when the need arose. Education and training on patient referral was given to the workers in Mushin Local Government Area only, as they were the intervention group. The study was in three stages. The first stage was a pre-intervention cross-sectional comparative study of Mushin and Surulere Local Government primary health care workers in the area of patient referral. The research instrument was a questionnaire. During the second stage Mushin Local Government primary health workers
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were educated and given practical training on patient referral. The third stage was a post intervention cross-sectional comparative study. The same questionnaire was used for comparability and the workers in both experimental and control groups were involved.
Results: The control and experimental groups were similar with respect to age, sex, professional qualification, length of professional service and length of time spent in each facility. Analysis of the pre-intervention responses of the two groups showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the responses between the two groups. However in the post-intervention phase the differences in the responses were statistically significant. The differences were in responses to questions on whether the worker was familiar with health services offered at the destination hospitals, on the instrument the worker used to refer patients to hospitals, on whether the worker referred patients or not, on the number of patients referred individually in a three month period, on whether feedback was received on referrals or not, the frequency of feedback on the referred patients and the frequency with which feedback was received by way of the two way referral form.
Conclusion: Education and training on patient referral can improve the patient referral activities of primary health care workers.

 EFFECT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON PATIENT REFERRAL BY PUBLIC PRIMARY HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN MUSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA TO STATE GENERAL HOSPITALS

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