IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF HEALTH TALKS GIVEN BY NURSES AND MIDWIVES AT NSAMBE HEALTH CENTER OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT
Abstract
Purpose of Study: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to enhance the delivery of health talks at Nsambe Health Center’s outpatient department by empowering nurses and midwives with skills to deliver consistent, relevant, and impactful health talks.
Methodology: A needs assessment identified gaps in health talk delivery, leading to the development of a health talk schedule and training for nurses and midwives. Key interventions included creating guidelines, training staff, and implementing monitoring tools for quality assurance. The project incorporated continuous quality improvement to sustain changes and track health talk delivery progress.
Result: The project achieved a significant improvement in health talk delivery, with the number of sessions increasing from 0% to 60%, surpassing the target of 50%. The success was attributed to structured scheduling, the increased use of IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) materials, and the active engagement of nurses and midwives. The implementation of a monitoring system helped ensure consistency and quality in delivery. Challenges such as inconsistent supervision were addressed by empowering facility leaders to sustain the changes.
Conclusion: The project showed that improving health talk delivery and training healthcare workers significantly enhances patient outcomes and informed decision-making.
Recommendation: To sustain the improvements, ongoing training and evaluation are recommended. Additionally, introducing new topics to maintain audience engagement and updating health talk materials regularly will help further enhance the quality and impact of the health talks. Continuing efforts to empower healthcare leaders to oversee and support these changes is crucial for long-term success.
Keywords: Health Talks, Quality Improvement, Patient Education, Nurses, Midwives, Donabedian Model, Malawi.
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