Human resource capacity for information management in selected public healthcare facilities in Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

IntroductionReliable health information is essential for decision making in the healthcare system. Information management in Kenya was considered the weakest area under the Health Information System pillar mainly due to inadequate health workers capacity. The study therefore aimed at assessing health workers skills and current training needs for information management in the selected healthcare facilities.MethodsCross-section research design was adopted and both purposive sampling technique and censuses were used to establish the study participants. Analysis was done using SPSS version 20 and results were presented in tables, charts and graphs.ResultsIt was established that capacity building was usually undertaken through on-job trainings i.e. 85.1% (103) health workers had on-job training on filling of data collection tools and only 10% (13) had received formal classroom training on the same. Further, only 9.1% (11) health workers had received information management training while 90.9% (110) had not received such training. Health workers demonstrated below average skills on information management i.e. only 17.4% (21) could check for data accuracy, only 16.5% (20) could compute trends from bar charts and only 16.5% (20) could transform the data they collected into meaningful information for use.ConclusionThe researcher recommended that healthcare facilities management teams develop a competency based framework for defining the desired skill mix for information management and have a yearly Training Needs Assessment for assessing training needs for information management among the health workers.

Exploring the Information and ICT Skills of Health Professionals in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…The study revealed that the majority were not able to perform such tasks: only 17% of the 121 health professionals could check for data accuracy, compute trends from bar charts or convert the collected data into meaningful information for use. This discovery is consistent with their finding that 91% had never received training for information management [20]. These figures show no progress compared to earlier evidence from a 15-country study: 13 out of 21 LMIC sites studied included personnel trained in data management or data quality control [28].…”

“…In northwest Ethiopia, 356 (59%) of the 606 health professionals studied were computer literate [10]. A smaller-scale assessment in Kenya found that approximately half (58 out of 121) of the health workers had no knowledge on how to use computers, which contributes to further limitations in data analysis and utilization skills [20]. Studies in Iran [21], Nigeria [13] and India [22] have found variation in nurses' computer skills, the Iranian study reporting the mean of 43% of computer skills based on the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) [21].…”

“…In Benin, a data quality assessment including a health worker survey (n=116) noted that the health professionals were inadequately qualified, as few had been trained on RHIS and the training received had not always been fit for purpose [25]. Kenya established their RHIS in 1984; however, 55% (67) of health workers had no knowledge about it [20]. In South Africa, researchers call the lack of knowledge about the RHIS rationale "disturbing" [17].…”

“…Hence, these overlapping categories are not distinguished as separate entities in all studies, though they may not necessarily be the same thing, either. Besides the health professionals' computer knowledge, the aforementioned Kenyan study [20] also evaluated the health workers' ability to perform basic information management functions. The study revealed that the majority were not able to perform such tasks: only 17% of the 121 health professionals could check for data accuracy, compute trends from bar charts or convert the collected data into meaningful information for use.…”

Identification of the essential components of quality in the data collection process for public health information systems

“…A data collector collects or supplies data for the PHIS. Of the 45 articles, 23 assessed the performance of data collectors 14,[29][30][31]33,35,[38][39][40]44,46,47,49,51,55,57,59,60,62,66,[68][69][70] (see Table 1). Details of facilitators and barriers for data collector are shown in Supplemental Appendix Table 2. A data collector is a stakeholder with whom the data user should build up and nurture a relationship.…”