Extending Professional Education to Health Workers at Grass Root Level: An Experience from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

BACKGROUND: In India, the opportunities for professional education of the grass root level health workers are grossly inadequate. Capacity building of all categories of health workers is needed for enhancing health outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To plan and implement a professional development training program for all categories of allied health workers and to assess its outcomes in terms of knowledge and skills MATERIALS AND METHOD: We planned and organized a ‘one week’(15 h) training program for 10 categories of allied health workers (1260) working in our hospital. The program included nine generic skills/topics: the prestige of AIIMS, sterilization & infection control, universal precaution, biomedical waste management, public health, life style & healthy nutrition, fire safety, communication skills and office procedure besides subject specific skills. Trainers were drawn from 12 departments. Training methodology included interactive lectures, narratives, demonstrations, videos, PPT slides, and informal discussions with participants. The effectiveness of the program was judged on the basis of participants’ feedback, feedback from the supervisors, and our own observations post training. RESULTS: Feedback from the participants and their supervisors after training was encouraging. The participants described training as a “life time experience”. The supervisors reported improvement in confidence, communication skills, and awareness of workers. CONCLUSION: The success of the program was due to the use of interactive methods, involvement of multidisciplinary team, and commitment from leadership. We recommend that professional education should be linked with career advancement. Academic institutions can play a key role in taking such initiatives.