Continuing education experiences of district level health staff in Nigeria

Primary health care (PHC) implementation has stimulated the need and interest in developing continuing education (CE) programs in Nigeria. A population study of 144 government (69%) and private (31%) health workers in the Ibarapa District of Oyo State in Nigeria documented their CE opportunities. Only 39 percent had attended an in-service training (IST) program in the past five years. Fewer (32%) had received a supervisory visit within the previous month, and most of these visits contained little of educational relevance according to respondents. Slightly over half (54%) reported attending a staff meeting in the previous month, but 72 percent had attended at least one in the past six months. Like supervisory visits, these meetings were not primarily educational in nature. Only 58 percent engaged in self-study through reading in the past six months, but quality reading materials were scarce, forcing health workers to rely on old texts and popular health magazines. Local government staff and workers with formal health training were most likely to have taken advantage of an IST. Trained workers and males were more likely to have engaged in self-study. New PHC management structures have the potential filling CE gaps and redressing imbalances in CE opportunities in this and other rural districts throughout the country.