Safe Motherhood in Nepal

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Building Capacity on Interpersonal Communication among Health Workers

"Interpersonal skill is very important for us in our professional life as well as in personal life" said Harikala Thapa, ANM during the opening of the workshop held at District Health Office (DHO), Dailekh in Nepal's Mid-west Region. Following the demand made by DHO, Johns Hopkins/School of Public Health/Support to Safe Motherhood Program (JHU-SSMP) organized a three days Workshop on Interpersonal Communication for community level health workers from March 4 to 6, 2008.  National Health Education, Information and Communication Center (NHEICC) provided the workshop curriculum. The main objective of the orientation was to enhance knowledge and skills of participants on interpersonal communication, clarify the importance of communication in behavior change, clarify the client's right and health service providers' responsibility and need in providing quality services and ultimately enable them to use the visual aids effectively in interpersonal communication.

Thirty (30) health workers - Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM), Staff Nurses, Maternal and Child Health Workers (MCHWs), Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) and two Doctors - actively participated in the orientation.

After the workshop, Staff Nurse Laxmi Roy, said “We always tried to provide quality service to our clients but we had not realized the important role of IPC skills for quality services yet”.  Subarna Raj K.C., Senior Auxiliary Health Worker  expressed “Many of us have more than  25 years work experience but we were not aware and oriented on the importance of communication in providing quality services”. Also, ANM Shova Neupane said "we have learned very important skills from this orientation and would like to commit for its practice in our daily work”. In the closing program, the DHO Dr. Guna Raj Awasti expressed thanks to all participants, facilitators and implementing agencies for the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by BCC professionals from Nepal Center for Communication Program (NCCP), a local communication NGO.

Interpersonal Communication (IPC) Workshop held in remote mountainous district of Dailekh.  Some health workers walked for two days to be able to participate.

Health workers role playing to practice interpersonal communication skills

Health worker practicing Interpersonal Communication Skills