Family planning training needs of auxiliary nurse midwives in Jharkhand, India: Lessons from an assessment.

Background: Auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), who play a pivotal role in the provision of maternal health services including family planning services, must be adequately trained and skilled. Systematic assessment of their training needs helps in determining this adequacy. We did a systematic assessment of the training needs of ANMs in Jharkhand. Methods: We designed a multi-stakeholder study including (i) meeting with government officials and international development partners (n=1 5); (ii) structured observation of health facilities (n=1 7); (iii) review of health management information system data; (iv) interviews with ANMs (n=19); and (v) interviews with contraceptive users (n=31). The data were thematically analysed based on gaps in technical knowledge, skills and practices; communication and counselling; infrastructural gaps; uptake of contraceptives and emerging training needs and approaches. Results: The ANMs lacked knowledge, e.g. in natural contraceptive methods and skills, e.g. counselling and recordkeeping. Gaps in infrastructure further hampered the provision of uninterrupted service. The belief system of the community about contraception was perceived as a barrier. The lacunae in their knowledge and skills could be attributed to systemic issues such as quality of pre-service education, absence or poor implementation of in-service trainings or individual issues such as incompetence or apathy towards the provision of service. Government training to ANMs in family planning was inadequate. Conclusion: Our study found inadequacy in the training of ANMs in family planning. We suggest the need for systemic efforts with the life cycle approach to family planning, a mix of theory and practical training, appropriate duration of training, careful selection of trainers, a confidence-building approach and supportive environment to raise competencies of ANMs to help them manage their health facilities.

Appraisal of maternity management and family planning guidelines using the agree II instrument in India.

INTRODUCTION: Guideline development gathered pace in India after the inception of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005. However, there is a lack of adequate information about guideline development process, review, and update. This paper reports on the systematic appraisal of Indian guidelines related to maternity management (MM) and family planning (FP) using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument, which was one of the components of a pilot research in 2012-13. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-four selected guidelines about MM and FP, identified through a consensus building workshop, were independently appraised by two appraisers with AGREE instrument having six different domains. Mean item scores, domain scores, and standardized scores were calculated by averaging the scores across the two appraisers. RESULTS: Most guidelines scored high in scope and purpose and clarity of presentation. However, they had little documentation about the development group member details, incorporation of patient views, evidence search method, method chosen for formulating recommendations, tools for application, potential barriers, cost implications, and information about the funding body. Nonclinical guidelines scored higher than clinical guidelines (P = 0.01) for MM in the domain applicability. Clinical FP guidelines scored higher than nonclinical guidelines in the domain of rigor of development (0.01). CONCLUSION: Despite being clinically sound, Indian guidelines score poorly due to weak documentation about their development process. It is recommended that the guideline development process be improved with systematic documentation for achieving standardization.

What does quality of care mean for maternal health providers from two vulnerable states of India? Case study of Bihar and Jharkhand.

BACKGROUND: Quality instillation has its own challenges, facilitators and barriers in various settings. This paper focuses on exploration of quality components related to practices, health system challenges and quality enablers from providers' perspectives with a focus on maternal health studied through a pilot research conducted in 2012-2013 in two states of India-Bihar and Jharkhand-with relatively poor indicators for maternal health. METHODS: Qualitative data through in-depth interviews of 49 health providers purposively selected from various cadres of public health system in two districts each from Bihar and Jharkhand states was thematically analysed using MAXQDA Version 10. RESULTS: Maternity management guidelines developed by the National Health Mission, India, were considered as a tool to learn instillation of quality in provision of health services in various selected health facilities. Infrastructure, human resources, equipments and materials, drugs, training capacity and health information systems were described as health system challenges by medical and paramedical health providers. On a positive note, the study findings simultaneously identified quality enablers such as appreciation of public-private partnerships, availability of clinical guidelines in the form of wall posters in health facilities, efforts to translate knowledge and evidence through practice and enthusiasm towards value of guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: Against the backdrop of quality initiatives in the country to foster United Health Care (UHC), frontline health providers' perspectives about quality and safety need to be considered and utilized. The provision of adequate health infrastructure, strong health management information system, introduction of evidence-based education and training with supportive supervision must constitute parallel efforts.