Improving quality of Care among paramedical staff in the private health facilities through mentoring- in Bihar, India

According to the National Family Health Survey III, 2/3 of all households in India seek medical treatment from private health care providers. There is an urgent need to tap the private sector, especially in reaching the population in the lowest wealth quintile where inequities are the highest. Therefore, there is an urgent need to build the skills of paramedics in the private facilities in delivering quality RMNCH services. With a view to understand the benefits of mentorinig to paramedics on infection prevention practices and obstetric services, a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted. A brief FGD guide was developed, pre-tested and then introduced at these facilities. Out of 50 facilities, 10 facilities were selected randomly across 5 districts and total 65 paramedics participated in 10 FGDs. The results indicate substantial improvement in hand-washing, use of personal protective equipment to protect themselves from infection. Most of the paramedics have learned Kangaroo Mother Care and few have developed skill to counsel family on immediate and exclusive breastfeeding. Very few Paramedics practice Active Management of Third Stage of Labour and prevent Post-Partum Haemorrhage. Most of the paramedics have knowledge of essential new-born care. Most of the paramedics have learned about sterilization especially use of signolac tape and maintaining register. All paramedics knew about Biomedical waste management and use of colour bucket with liner for waste segregation. Our findings clearly reflect that quality of care practices have improved through mentoring of paramedics. This strategy can be further scaled-up to larger private health sectors to address quality of service provisions.

Author(s): Kumar Vikrant

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