No fewer than 400 health care providers in Kwara have been trained in the area of maternal and neo-natal care since April by the Saving-One-Million-Live (SOML) initiative.
SOML is an initiative of the Federal Government.
The health care workers trained included NYSC corps members medical doctors, midwives, nurses and community extension workers among others.
The Kwara State, SOML Programme Manager, Dr Umar Hassan, stated this while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the training which took place in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
He disclosed that Kwara is witnessing great improvement in the area of managing maternal and infants health in the state since inception of the training by health workers across the 16 LGAs.
He said the training is in area of integrated maternal and child health illnesses at the Primary Health Care level.
Hassan said that the health care workers needed to have precise understanding of what they need to do when it comes to common ailments that concerns target population.
He explained that the training afford them guidelines of best practices in management of fever in children, Asphyxia, malaria, convulsion and Pneumonia, among other ailments.
The expert observed that the ability of healthcare providers to identify danger signs is what can reduce maternal, child mortality in Nigeria.
The SOML Programme Manager said that poor perception of health workers by the patients is also a critical issue for which the training is dealing with.
According to him, there is a course and module in the training that addresses issues of attitude of healthcare providers to patients.
“Perception of the client is very important and it’s important that the clients have a very good perception of you, and that happens if only you have very good attitude towards the clients, “he said.
Also speaking with newsmen, Dr Uthman Mubashir, Head of Africa Executive Training and Career Development Limited, explained that the training is as a result of the response analysis that Kwara is not doing well in maternal and child care.
“Indications show need for improvement on knowledge and skills of healthcare providers, basic intervention and prevention of maternal mortality,” he said.
Mubashir said the training will reduce maternal mortality, empower health workers with knowledge of modern facilities and elicit best interaction with patients.
Mrs Asmau Apkalando, one of the trainees by SOML, commended the Federal Government for the initiative, adding that they will also extend the trainings to other care providers when they go back to their respective places.
She appealed to the state government to equip the health centres and hospital with modern facilities, so they can utilise the knowledge they have acquired.
