Local Doctor: A Driving Village Health Volunteers towards Sustainable Development of Mae San Sub-district, Hang Chat District, Lampang Province

Abstract

           This participatory action research aims (1) to develop a learning exchange process in the development of village health volunteers (VHV) in Mae San Sub-district and (2) to link the movement of the VHVs towards sustainable development. A purposive sampling was selected from 20 VHV leaders. The research instruments used were observation, in-depth interviews and test. A content validation approach was used to construct and check the quality of the research instruments. The process theory was applied to collect the data. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method, including the triangulation.

           The findings are as follows: 1) The power of exchanging and learning of the VHVs has the same aim that is to fulfill their potential in community health care as the society expected when an emergency occurred. The exchanging of knowledge with their “happy VHV partners” (kuhu sara suk) is beneficial to the public, the community and the health system. Therefore, that VHV is named a “local doctor” who creates the power to exchange knowledge among Mae San VHVs. The VHV leaders join the learning practice then create a network to pass knowledge to their happy partner in the community.  2) The process of linking the movement of Mae San VHVs is based on the cooperation with several partner agencies such as Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Lampang; Mae Hiang health promoting hospital; Mae San subdistrict administrative organization; Boon Hom senior school; Lampang Rajabhat University; and happy VHV partners. The research found that the philosophy, vision and mission of these organizations are all in a similar direction, that is, focusing on corporate social responsibility to develop economic, social and environmental towards sustainability, or focusing on sustainability according to the philosophy of sufficiency economy.