Assessment of outreach immunization services as a strategy to increase immunization coverage to reach Zanzibar national target of ninety Percent. A case study y - north “A” district of Unguja
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Reaching the whole target population is one among the five essential components of the WHO/RED Strategy, and an operational approach to achieve immunization coverage. Different approaches for reaching target population enhance delivering of the health services to a large proportion of the population, that is Outreach (fixed site or mobile), Mass campaign and Village Health Day and Nutrition,The study was conducted to assess the outreach immunization service as a strategy to increase immunization coverage to reach Zanzibar national target of ninety percent. The study was carried out as quantitative and qualitative descriptive case study design involving 100 respondents including 80 community members from 5 selected Shehia in North “A “District of Unguja (Bandamaji, Kinyasini, Kandwi, Fukuchani and Kigongoni); 13 service providers from Chaani Kubwa, Kidoti and Pwani Mchangani health facilities and 7 supervisors from the District Health Management Teams. The information was obtained using guided interview questions, documentary review, and checklist/ observation. Data analysis was done by manual sorting, tallying, tabulation on master sheet through electronic software, and the results are presented in figures, tables and percentage (both qualitative and quantitative). The study findings revealed that the majority 46.15% of service providers interviewed were unskilled personnel (auxiliary worker) who execute outreach immunization services, with no reliable transport to track and follow up the outreach services, (23.75) % of the respondents agreed that outreach settings were not conducive to perform outreach services, and (16.25%) respondents were not satisfied with the services they received at the outreach setting. The study concluded that, factors limiting reaching unreached population include: weak supportive supervision (30%), weak male involvement (20%), and shortage of qualified staff (50%) to execute outreach immunization services and to reach all target population viii.Moreover, community suggested that to increase the number of resources, outreach services should be comprehensive and integrated as well as construction of health facility at every outreach setting to be put into consideration.The study recommended that the need to increase the demand for and supply of qualified staff so as to improve the utilization of health services and performance of the providers; to intensify community education on the use of the health services and to effectively provide supportive supervisions at regularly (at least monthly or quarterly) to
improve staff performance.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the school of public administration and management in partial fulfilment for the requirement of the award for the degree of master of science in health monitoring and evaluation at Mzumbe University
Keywords
Immunization Services, Outreach services, Epi Logical Model, Health Believe Model
Citation
APA