Sharma Chesta, Mukherjee Kanchan
School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
J Family Reprod Health. 2014 Dec;8(4):183-8.
To understand the knowledge and services of informal providers and to explore their role in addressing the human resource gap in Uttar Pradesh, India, within the context of maternal health.
The study is exploratory in nature, conducted in four blocks of four districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 114 informal providers.
More than one-third (38%) providers have some formal education and unrecognized degrees. Approximately three-fourths (74%) of them have more than 5 years of work experience. They also provide delivery and in-patient services and have basic equipment available. However, they lack essential knowledge about maternal health. They have mixed opinion about their contribution towards maternal health but the only ones available. Therefore, despite lacking requisite knowledge, training and services, they become indispensable due to lack of emergency and timely public health services, and being the only ones existing in the community.
Informal sector practitioners are a critical link in reaching out to population for health services in developing countries. As opposed to the general notion, they possess years of formal education, experience, informal trainings along with trust of communities. Thus, it becomes important to accept their presence and manage them to the best of their abilities even for specialized care like maternal health.
在孕产妇健康背景下，了解非正规医疗服务提供者的知识和服务情况，并探讨他们在解决印度北方邦人力资源缺口方面所起的作用。
本研究为探索性研究，在印度北方邦四个区的四个街区开展。对114名非正规医疗服务提供者进行了半结构化访谈。
超过三分之一（38%）的提供者接受过一些正规教育但学历未获认可。其中约四分之三（74%）有超过5年的工作经验。他们还提供分娩和住院服务，且配备有基本设备。然而，他们缺乏有关孕产妇健康的基本知识。他们对自己在孕产妇健康方面的贡献看法不一，但却是唯一可提供服务的群体。因此，尽管缺乏必要的知识、培训和服务，但由于缺乏应急和及时的公共卫生服务，且是社区中唯一存在的医疗力量，他们变得不可或缺。
在发展中国家，非正规医疗从业者是为民众提供卫生服务的关键环节。与一般观念不同的是，他们拥有多年正规教育、经验、非正规培训以及社区的信任。因此，即便对于像孕产妇健康这样的专科护理，接纳他们的存在并充分发挥其能力也变得十分重要。
