%0 Journal Article
%T Initial community perspectives on the Health Service Extension Programme in Welkait, Ethiopia
%A Haile Negusse
%A Eilish McAuliffe
%A Malcolm MacLachlan
%J Human Resources for Health
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-4491-5-21
%X This study seeks to explore the experience of the HSEP from the perspective of the community who received the service. A random sample of 60 female heads-of-household in a remote area of Tigray participated in a structured interview survey.Although Health Extension Workers (HEWs) had visited them less frequently than planned, participants generally found the programme to be helpful. Despite this, their basic health knowledge was still quite poor regarding the major communicable diseases and their vectors. Participants felt the new HESP represented an improvement on previous health provision. HEWs were preferred over Traditional Birth Attendants for assistance with labourWhile the introduction of HEWs has been a positive experience for women living at the study site, the frequency of visits, extent of effectively imparted health knowledge and affects of HEWs on other health providers needs to be further explored.While low income countries have limited resources for training healthcare professionals, the migration of those who are trained to conventional international standards has made dependence on such cadres increasingly precarious [1]. Low income countries are therefore increasingly looking to new 'mid-level cadres' (health workers who work 'above' the level of responsibility usually afforded health workers with similar training in higher income countries) to provide healthcare [2]. Research is urgently needed on the impact of these new categories of staff upon the provision of better health services in low income countries [3].It is widely acknowledged that Ethiopia has an inadequate health service, with most of the rural, nomadic pastoralist and fringe areas having little access to it. However, even those services that do exist are underutilized due to economic and social barriers [4]. In response to Ethiopia's chronic shortfall in conventionally qualified health workers, and amidst some of the worst health indicators in Africa ¨C including the second largest nu
%U http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/5/1/21