Analysis On The Condition Of Expertise And Training Needs Of Community Health Educators In Lanzhou City

ObjectiveIn this study, we used both quantitative survey and qualitative interview to understand the present situation of expertise and training needs of community health educators in five county/districts of Gansu province, in order to provide a scientific basis for health education’s further development and community health educators’ capacity building.MethodsA general investigation was conducted on all the staffs by questionnaires, who were currently working on community health education in Chengguan District, Qilihe District, Xigu District and Yuzhong County of Lanzhou City, besides Baiyin district of Baiyin City as concurrent control. Compare the correct response rate, the pass rate and training needs. Analyze the personnel composition, correct response rate and pass rate by chi-square test and the score by t-test of health education basic knowledge between Lanzhou and Baiyin. Evaluate the pass rate of professional theoretical knowledge of health education and health common sense by TOPSIS Comprehensive Evaluation. A qualitative interview was conducted among managerial personnel and operating personnel of community health education.Results(1)The differences of ages, the highest educational background, title series, years of working in health education between community health educators in Lanzhou and Baiyin were statistically significant (P＜0.05), the difference of community health educators’ attitude to community health education work between Lanzhou and Baiyin were statistically significant (P＜0.05). It was basically similar in cognition and training needs of health education between Lanzhou and Baiyin (P>0.05).(2)The general results of the survey in five county/districts contained①In this study, the number of respondents was510, contained397of Lanzhou and113of Baiyin. The respondents were mainly women (58.82%) and aged30～45(50.00%), the stuffs whose degree of education were bachelor degree or above accounted for26.47%. The highest educational background was mainly clinical medicine (64.12%). Community health educators working more than10years accounted for22.75%and full-time staffs accounted for52.16%.②18(3.53%) knew the meaning of health education and health promotion exactly,304(59.61%) knew the content of health education comprehensively,31(6.08%) knew the common interpersonal communication way of health education,229(44.90%) knew the risk behaviors to health exactly,192(37.65%) understood the preventive measures to diabetes comprehensively,187(36.67%) understood the risk factors of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases comprehensively.③The number of passes was4(0.78%) in professional theoretical knowledge of health education,352(69.02%) were below40points. The number of passes was422(82.75%) in health common sense,93(18.24%) were above75points, the highest score was88.89and the lowest was40.74. The average score in different characteristics of the personnel about professional theoretical knowledge of health education were low, the differences of average score and pass rate were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The highest average score in different characteristics of the personnel about health common sense was70.14and the lowest was63.21, the differences of average score and pass rate were not statistically significant (P>0.05).④440(86.27%) thought community health education was very important and most of them were willing to working in health education.⑤In nearly3years,358(70.20%) had took part in health education train and the train were mainly organized at municipal level or lower. The average number of training people was1.39at national level or higher,1.91at provincial level and3.69at municipal level or lower. The training contents they wanted were mainly basic knowledge and skills about health education and knowledge about diseases. The total top three training forms they wanted were lecture (70.20%), combination of lecture and practice (63.53%) and field practice (56.27%).203(39.80%) hoped the training time being a week or so and208(40.78%) being less than4days.92.35%considered it was necessary to have advanced study of knowledge and skills on health education.⑥The result of TOPSIS Comprehensive Evaluation showed community health educators’knowledge level of Chengguan District ranked first, followed by Xigu District, Yuzhong County, Baiyin District and Qilihe District.⑦The qualitative interview showed it was still faced with many difficulties in further development of health education, such as a limited budget to health education work, a low number and a large flow of health educators. In addition, many workers were part-timers and their professional quality was low, part of the masses had bad health consciousness and it still lacked adequate social support.ConclusionThe attitude of community health educators to health education was positive. However, the structure of educational level, the highest educational background and titles were unreasonable, the level of expertise was low, and the overall quality of community health educators can’t meet the growing needs for services of the masses. The government and all sectors of society should pay more attention to increase investment in many ways so as to improve the overall quality of community health educators.