Blanchard Catherine P, Carpenter Bryan
Centre for Rural Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Congella, South Africa.
Rural Remote Health. 2012;12:2026. Epub 2012 Aug 14.
The World Health Organisation identifies strengthening leadership and management as an essential component in scaling up health services to reach the UN's Millennium Development Goals. There is an identified need for informal, practically based management training programs, such as action learning, which allow trainees to reflect on their own work environment. Action learning, in essence, is learning by sharing real problems with others, as opposed to theoretical classroom learning.
The objective of this study was to pilot an action learning group program with managers in a rural public health setting and to explore participants' experience of the program. An eleven-month action learning group program was conducted for public health sector managers in a rural health district in northern KwaZulu-Natal. On conclusion of the action learning group program, a qualitative study using focus group discussions was conducted to explore participants' experience of the action learning groups and their potential usefulness as a development opportunity.
Respondents' commitment to the project was evident from the high attendance at group meetings (average of 95%). On conclusion of the program, all participants had presented a work related problem to their respective groups and all participants had developed an action plan, and provided feedback on their action plan. Ten participants were still actively working on their action plans and seven participants had completed their action plans. The main themes that emerged from the qualitative data were understandings of action learning; elements that enabled the program; perceived benefits; and reported changes over the course of the program. The major benefits reported by participants were enhanced teamwork and collaboration, and providing participants with the skills to apply action learning principles to other challenges in their working lives.
From the participants' shared perspectives, although the findings cannot be generalised, this study showed that the use of action learning groups may help managers resolve problems in their institutions, develop managers' skills of working within teams, and provide a vital form of support for managers. Action learning groups may well be a useful method for improving the skills of public health sector managers in rural health settings.
世界卫生组织将加强领导与管理确定为扩大卫生服务以实现联合国千年发展目标的重要组成部分。人们发现需要开展基于实践的非正式管理培训项目，如行动学习，让学员能够反思自己的工作环境。本质上，行动学习是通过与他人分享实际问题来学习，这与理论课堂学习不同。
本研究的目的是在农村公共卫生环境中试点一项针对管理人员的行动学习小组项目，并探索参与者对该项目的体验。为夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省北部一个农村卫生区的公共卫生部门管理人员开展了为期11个月的行动学习小组项目。在行动学习小组项目结束时，采用焦点小组讨论进行了一项定性研究，以探索参与者对行动学习小组的体验及其作为发展机会的潜在效用。
从小组会议的高出席率（平均95%）可以明显看出受访者对该项目的投入。项目结束时，所有参与者都向各自的小组提出了一个与工作相关的问题，并且所有参与者都制定了行动计划，并对自己的行动计划提供了反馈。10名参与者仍在积极推进他们的行动计划，7名参与者已经完成了他们的行动计划。定性数据中出现的主要主题是对行动学习的理解；促成该项目的要素；感知到的益处；以及项目过程中报告的变化。参与者报告的主要益处是团队合作和协作得到加强，以及为参与者提供了将行动学习原则应用于工作生活中其他挑战的技能。
从参与者的共同观点来看，尽管研究结果不能一概而论，但本研究表明，使用行动学习小组可能有助于管理人员解决其机构中的问题，培养管理人员在团队中工作的技能，并为管理人员提供一种至关重要的支持形式。行动学习小组很可能是提高农村卫生环境中公共卫生部门管理人员技能的一种有用方法。
