Kwara trains community health workers on integrated maternal and newborn health

No less than 40 Community Health Workers (CHEWs) across the 16 local government areas of Kwara State have been engaged in integrated maternal and newborn health care.

The CHEWs were hired by the Kwara State Saving One Million Lives for Results (SOMLPfR) program with the aim of minimizing the maternal mortality rate in the state.

Speaking to reporters during the five-day training program, the state SOML program manager, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, said the training was a capacity building for health workers in health care centers. primary health.

Dr Ibrahim said the federal government’s four-year-old program, which began in 2017 in the state, was extended due to the COVID-19 outbreak and ended this month.

“Since we don’t want an increase in maternal mortality, and to achieve this, we needed health workers who knew best practices. Besides telling them the best thing to do, there is also a practice session.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

“This is not the first training we would do. We have conducted several capacity building trainings since the program started in 2017. We had trained approximately 400 health workers across the state, making 440 with continuing education at Omu Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area in Kwara State.

Dr Ibrahim also said that the type of training received by health workers could be passed on to other health workers in their various local administrations.

Dr. Ibrahim said that apart from training, medical equipment is installed in the facilities to work, adding that the program covers all states plus the FCT.

He advised the participants to put the knowledge acquired into practice as soon as they arrived at their various facilities.

“It’s a big job. We encourage the state government to adopt it for sustainability, because the fact that the federal government has adopted it shows that it is a big job. So, given the scarce resources, I think the state will do something about it,” he said.

Earlier, the course director, Professor Adeboye Mohammed, expressed his optimism that there should be more knowledgeable hands at the local level to make the right decisions, take care of the newborn and be able to refer appropriately at the end of the training.

Adeboye, who is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), said training was essential for CHEWS to enable them to confidently manage newborn babies before referral.

He explained that the health management of newborns needs the capable hands of qualified health personnel so that they can lead a normal life without any scars that may affect newborns.

How Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Forces Many People to Quit Their Dream Jobs

Kwara trains community health workers on integrated maternal and newborn health

Comments are closed.