Mr. Arka Majhi will present his APS as per the details below:
Date: 29/9/2022 (Thursday)
Time: 0845 - 1000 hrs.
Venue: CTARA Conference Room No. 1
Title: Gamification of the Refresher Training for Frontline Workers on maternal and newborn care
Supervisor: Prof. Satish B Agnihotri
RPC Members: Prof. Amit Arora, Prof. Girish Dalvi, Prof. Sarthak Gaurav
Abstract:
High and persistent levels of child malnutrition continue to be a matter of concern in India. The universal coverage of children under different healthcare and nutritional programmes has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of Frontline Workers (FLWs) or Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) i.e. the Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). The job training and the refresher training of these workers leave a lot to be desired. The capacity deficit of field functionaries has been identified as a major factor affecting the effectiveness of this programme. Given the massive numbers of field functionaries and the continuously advancing base of knowledge and techniques, conventional training pedagogy is ineffective in building and updating the capacity of the Frontline Healthcare Workers and their supervisors. With the improvement of technology and widespread availability of smartphones in cities as well as rural and tribal villages of India, access to digital training systems can potentially benefit the healthcare workers and the healthcare system to a large extent, rendering reduced malnutrition and infant mortality rate, countrywide. The conventional training methods are proving to be inadequate for the task. Gamification of the training material for the refresher training and use of digital tools for its dissemination offers one potential solution to this problem which is the subject matter of the doctoral research. The care protocol is gamified through different gaming options, and digital versions of these games are developed which are playable on the android platform. Card games appear as highly suitable for this purpose, and their customization for the training content is in progress. The study compares the effectiveness of the game-based learning pedagogy and conventional classroom instruction with a group of ASHAs and discusses ways to make it an adequate refresher training substitute.