Empowerment Program to Develop Competency on Knowledge and Performance in Community of Village Health Volunteers (VHVs)

Abstract

      The purposes of this quasi-experimental study were to determine the effects of empowerment programs on the knowledge and performance of community of Village Health Volunteers (VHVs). The design of this study was a one-group pretest-posttest design. The sample consisted of 80 VHVs. Tracie's theory on empowerment was used to conceptualize the empowerment program. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to describe the findings. A paired t-test was used to determine the differenced on the mean score of knowledge and performance.

     The results showed that after the program, mean scores on knowledge and performance of  VHVs were statistically significantly higher than those mean scores before participate empowerment program (t = 12.34, 17.47, 18.31 respectively, p <0.001). Suggestions from the study that health practitioners should organize empowerment activities to continuously improve knowledge, attitudes, and skills of VHVs who are working to enhance the health status of the communities.