Book Description

This revised training guide is designed to help health workers, including nurses, midwives, and medical assistants, improve managerial skills. The book is divided into four main parts, each dealing with a different aspect of management. An opening exercise helps readers diagnose managerial weaknesses and turn to appropriate chapters for study. Part I explains general principles and functions of management. Part II on personal relations offers advice on the following topics: how to get to know the community, motivate a health team, delegate authority, supervise supportively, conduct meetings, and encourage high work standards. Part III describes problem-solving methods for management of common problems involving equipment, drug supply, money, time, space in the office or clinic and in the community, and paperwork. Information includes how-to instructions for prepackaging and labeling of routine courses of drugs, advice on preparation of a duty roster, and guidance on what to do when treatment of a single common disease would consume the drug budget. Part IV shows how to apply principles of good management to health care in a community and offers step-by-step advice on how to assess needs, fix priorities, define objectives, monitor progress, and adjust programs. Methods for developing community self-help programs are described. Each chapter begins with a statement of learning objectives; each part concludes with exercises to aid individual instruction and problem-solving in teams. Seventy pages of illustrative solutions to the exercises are provided. (YLB)