Hoppenbrouwer Joost, Kanyengo Christine Wamunyima
Medical Library, School of Medicine, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
Health Info Libr J. 2007 Dec;24(4):246-56. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00728.x.
To assess the current situation of access to information by health staff at selected central, provincial, district hospitals and health centres in Zambia.
Government and non-governmental institutions were visited in the Lusaka Urban District and nine rural districts in the North-Western, Western and Central Provinces of Zambia in 2001. Thirty interviews were held with provincial and district health directors, medical doctors, nurses and clinical officers in district hospitals and rural and urban health centres. In 2006, a follow-up visit was undertaken to the health centres in the Lusaka Urban District in Lusaka Province and the Sesheke District in the Western Province.
There is limited access to health information for health workers in Zambia. In hospitals and health centres, where there is access, it is usually provided in an ad hoc manner without a central policy from the government. In all the places visited, there was also an overwhelming expressed need for different types of information relating to the professional or personal needs of health care workers.
The study found that access to information was very poor. There were some excellent examples of local initiatives showing that, even under difficult financial and infrastructural circumstances, it was feasible to improve health workers' access to information by using low technology, information access initiatives. These existing local initiatives deserve to be scaled up, while new initiatives should be adopted to improve access to information in a much more structured way. Of paramount importance is the formulation and implementation of an information policy that will guarantee the provision of health information to Zambian health workers.
评估赞比亚部分中央、省级、地区医院及健康中心的卫生工作人员获取信息的现状。
2001年，走访了赞比亚卢萨卡市区以及西北、西部和中央省的9个农村地区的政府和非政府机构。与省级和地区卫生主任、地区医院以及农村和城市健康中心的医生、护士和临床干事进行了30次访谈。2006年，对卢萨卡省卢萨卡市区和西部省塞舍凯区的健康中心进行了随访。
赞比亚卫生工作者获取卫生信息的机会有限。在有信息获取途径的医院和健康中心，信息通常是临时提供的，没有政府的中央政策。在所走访的所有地方，卫生保健工作者对于与专业或个人需求相关的各类信息也都有强烈需求。
研究发现信息获取情况非常糟糕。有一些当地积极举措的优秀范例表明，即使在资金和基础设施困难的情况下，通过采用低技术的信息获取举措来改善卫生工作者的信息获取也是可行的。这些现有的当地举措值得扩大规模，同时应采取新的举措，以更有条理的方式改善信息获取情况。至关重要的是制定并实施一项信息政策，以确保向赞比亚卫生工作者提供卫生信息。
