In 2019, under Odisha Health Systems Strengthening Program, a four-year collaborative effort by the Health System Transformation Platform (HSTP) was initiated with the Government of Odisha, Tata Trusts, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The collaborative effort intended to improve Odisha Health Systems to provide affordable and equitable access to quality care for its population while avoiding significant financial risks and improving citizen satisfaction. The collaborative health systems diagnostic study identified Primary Health Care Provider's competencies as an area that is to be improved.
Community Health Officers (CHOs) are non-physician health workers. They are appointed in the newly upgraded Health Sub-Centres (HSCs) known as Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) which cover the 3000-5000 population. The HWCs are envisioned to bring comprehensive primary healthcare services closer to community. Hence, strengthening this cadre competency would play a significant role in improving delivery of primary healthcare services and performances of HWCs. HSTP has collaborated with Sathyabama College of Nursing, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai to conduct a CHO’s Competency Assessment in Odisha as a partner.
Competency assessment is the first step towards development of any cadre within the health workforce and requires development of a comprehensive competency assessment tool. CHO Competency Collaborative Team collated and reviewed publicly available guidelines and advisories related to the roles and responsibilities of CHO (National Level – 3; State Governments: 10) to develop a comprehensive list of CHO’s roles and responsibilities, and identified the role-based competencies.
The team organized the first national expert consultation to validate the competencies through seasoned experts on 22nd August 2023 from 2.00 PM to 3.30 PM. After that, the team developed Competency Assessment Tools (CAT) and organized the second national expert consultation to validate the CAT and to collect the consensus for field testing on 30th October 2023 from 11.00 AM to 12.30 PM.
