IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOR OVERALL COURSE PLANNING
3-5
A. Planning to be done before the
training course begins:
1. FIRST CONSIDERATIONS-
PURPOSES AND QUESTIONS
• Whose needs will the training program be
primarily designed to meet?
• Will it only extend the existing health system, or
will it help to change it?
• How much will it prepare the health worker to
understand and deal with the social (economic,
cultural, political) causes of ill health?
• Will it make the poor more dependent, or help
them to be more self-reliant? Will it promote or
resist social change?
• What are the general goals and objectives of the
program? (To express goals in terms of numbers
and dates is probably unwise at this stage. Why?)
• Who is (or should be) involved in all these
decisions?
2. OBSERVATION OF NEEDS AND RESOURCES
(Talking with a few observant persons from the area
can often provide more useful information than a
census or elaborate ‘community diagnosis’, at far
lower cost, more quickly, and with less abuse.)
Information worth considering:
• Common health problems: how frequent and
how serious?
• Causes of main problems: physical and social,
coming from inside and outside the community.
People’s attitudes, traditions, and concerns.
• Resources: human, physical, economic, from
inside and outside the area.
• Characteristics of possible health workers: age,
experience, education, interest, etc.
• Possible choices of instructors and training
organizers.
• Possible sources of funding and assistance.
(Which are more appropriate?)
• Reports and experiences of other programs.
• Obstacles: certain, likely, and possible.
3. EARLY DECISIONS- Who?
Where? How many? When?
• Selection of health workers: by the
community, by the health program, or by both?
(How can selection of a health worker be a
learning experience for the community?)
• Selection of instructors and advisers:
♦♦ How much understanding and respect do they
have for village people? Do they treat them as
equals?
♦♦ How committed are they to working toward
social change?
♦♦ Do they have the necessary knowledge and
skills (public health, education, group dynamics,
community organization, medicine, etc.) or are
they willing to learn?
• Location:
♦♦ Where will the training take place? Near or far?
Village or city? Why?
♦♦ Where will everyone eat and sleep? In hotels?
In special facilities? With village families?
(How can these decisions influence what they wi
learn?)
• Numbers: How many students will take part in
the training course? (Beyond 12 or 15, quality of
training usually decreases. This must be weighed
against the need to train more health workers.)
• Timing:
♦♦ How long will the training course last?
♦♦ What time of year is best? (Consider
how these decisions may affect who
can take part in the course.)
♦♦ Will the training be done in one continuous
stretch, or be divided into short blocks so that
students can return home (and practice what
they have learned) between sessions?
(Whose needs and opinions should be considered in
answering these questions?)
• Funding:
♦♦ From where? How much money should come
from outside the local area?
♦♦ What are the interests of possible funding
groups?
♦♦ What are the advantages and disadvantages of
asking communities to pay part of the cost of
training their health worker?
♦♦ How can costs be kept low? How much is
needed?
• Follow-up and support:
♦♦ What opportunities may there be for continued
learning or training after the course is over?
♦♦ What kind of support or supervision will the
health workers receive?
(Why is it important to consider follow-up before the
training program begins?)