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CDMU Documentation Centre, Calcutta, had the
opportunity to conduct a one-day training program for
community health workers of ACCORD, a voluntary
organization dedicated to rural community development
work, on September 21, 1998. The venue was ACCORD’s
office at Barrackpore in the North 24 Parganas district
of West Bengal. The number of participants was not large,
which enabled the training to be conducted in an
informal, almost homely, atmosphere.
Although the program’s theme was broadly
‘Rational Use of Drugs’, the topics encouraged
a lot of discussion on preventive and non-drug aspects of
management of common health problems.Five areas were covered:
- Malaria
- Acute diarrheal
diseases
- Dental and oral
hygiene
- Mother and child
health (MCH) care
- Practical aspects of
drug handling
After a brief mutual
introduction, the day’s program unfolded with the
problem of malaria which has reached epidemic proportions
in this country. The discussion touched on various
aspects of this mosquito-borne menace, including the
issues of resistance developing from inappropriate drug
use and environmental control as the overall key to
malaria control. The session on diarrhea was threaded
together by a series of colorful slides which made the
resource person’s task simpler. The participants
were already aware of the need and benefits of oral
rehydration therapy, although information gaps on
assessing dehydration severity and proper use of oral
rehydration solution needed to be filled in. The
preventive aspects of acute diarrheal diseases were
discussed. The post-lunch session began with the
participants being asked to demonstrate the proper mode
of tooth brushing on a plaster cast model of human teeth.
Dental and oral hygiene are, sadly, much neglected
aspects of health care and the one-hour session was far
too inadequate to address the topic fully. Despite this
constraint, the resource person did his best to educate
the participants and answer the queries, ranging from
thumb-sucking to oral cancer, which kept on coming. MCH
care, as usual, turned out to be the most interactive
session as this is one area where majority of community
health workers are highly active and rightfully so. Once
again time played spoilsport, much to the disappointment
of the participants. The final session was on storage and
handling of medicines. It is astonishing, but true, how
few of us can administer eye drops correctly, leave alone
tackle a metered-dose inhaler. Vital and often neglected
aspects in the handling of various dosage forms was
discussed with actual samples. The session concluded with
emphasis on the sterility aspect of injections.
This training program was CDMU’s second encounter
with the field workers of ACCORD. Like the first, the
micro-teaching environment proved to be highly conducive
to the exchange of ideas and the program concluded with
both the resource persons and the participants expressing
their eagerness to continue this interaction at the
earliest possible opportunity in future. At CDMU, all of
us would be looking forward to the next training program.
Recent additions to
our library:
- Nelson WE,
Behrman RE, Kligman RM, Arvin AM,
editors. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics.
15th ed [Indian ed]. Vols 1 and 2.
Bangalore: Prism Books; 1996.
- Niemann S,
Metcalf E, editors. Where Women Have No
Doctor: A Health Guide for Women.
Berkeley, California: The Hesperian
Foundation; 1997.
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