Duration: 2021 – 2024
Principal Researcher
Manuela Ferreira
Team Members
Ana Paula Cardoso
Sofia Campos
Graça Aparício
Paula Nelas
Inês Jorge de Figueiredo
Vitor Martins
Joana Rita Andrade
António Grilo Novais
Jorge Pinhal dos Santos
Felizardo Costa Neto
Manuel Octávio Isaac Spínola
Osvaldo Manuel Pelinganga
UI&D: CI&DEI; UICISA: E
Institutional and Enterprise Partners
Politécnico de Viseu; Saúde em Português (ASP); Instituto Politécnico do KWANZA SUL (ISPKS)
Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)
Gungo’s community, with about 33.969 inhabitants, does not have any doctor or licensed nurse in the field. In 2016, the Associação Saúde em Português (ASP) performed a diagnostic screening and inquired health promotors and midwives in Gungo (n=32, 25%). In 10 months, was concluded that 261 births were performed, 116 childhood deaths were recorded and 10% maternal death mortality was related to peripartum. The main aim of this project is to contribute to human development through sustained and continuous human resources training for quality health care in the maternal and child area, as well as testing an interventive training model, enabling the flattering evolution of social and economic health determinants. The project will be implemented following an action-research methodology. The target group will consist of 30 health technicians: 25 health promoters and midwives and 5 nurses from the Kwanza Sul Polytechnic Institute (KSPI). A questionnaire protocol will be applied: of sociodemographic description; literacy and quality of life in health; identification of daily practices and knowledge in maternal and child health. Once training necessities are identified, a formative intervention program to promote maternal and child health and health literacy will be implemented to empower the target group. The training activity will be taught in a course format, consisting of a 2-year curriculum, with about 360 theoretical-practical hours, organized into functional modules lasting one week each month. After training, the same instruments will be applied for a meticulous study of the intervention’s effects. In this context, an experimental field research will be conducted with two groups: i) the experimental, consisting of all promoters and nurses who will receive training and ii) the control group composed of other health professionals not subject to training. It will have a 1 to 2 ratio and will obey the following pairing rules: same gender, age, professional activity and practice experience. Expected Outcomes: To train health technicians, such as nurses, health promoters and midwives, for pregnancy surveillance, labor and postpartum care, pediatric surveillance up to 5 years of age; increase and improve technical/scientific knowledge in the maternal and child health area and ensure the sustainability and continuity of the training program. Investing in literacy and training of health technicians assisting children and mothers in this region is not just a human rights requirement; It is also a consistent economic decision and one of the most guaranteed paths towards greater equality and social justice between countries.