Construction and usability of community health nursing database in rural north‐eastern Thailand

Abstract

515-523Introductions: Digitization could be incorporated in rural areas of resource-poor countries because information gathered by nurses working on-site could be better used. Background: For effective management of community health information, the usage and maintenance of digital records are important. Digitization of information provides essential information for informing health policy. Aim: To develop a sustainable database to effectively collect and manage community health information and nursing practice. Methods: This study used a mixed method design. Phase 1 involved the development of a database system through repeated systematic focus group discussions with community health nurses. Phase 2 involved a practical trial examination of the developed system with both objective and subjective evaluations. Results: A nursing database system was developed with templates designed for the major health problems of communities. The templates were composed of multiple-choice items and a free-text field that allowed records to be more detailed than handwritten records and maintained in standardized formats. This enables accumulation of data that were less likely to be influenced by the variance of ability in each nurse. Discussion and conclusion: A multifaceted evaluation of the database system suggested that it could improve the efficiency of information management and contribute to the improvement of nursing care quality through standardization of the recording pattern. Implications for nursing and health policy: The nursing database will enable high-quality information storage that will potentially better inform health and healthcare policies as well as enable visualization of data concerning nursing care challenges and activities within the relevant communities. This information is Correspondence address: Naoko Arakawa, Department of Nursing, College of Life and Health Sciences, Chubu University, 1200 Matsumoto, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan; Tel: 81-568-51-1111; Fax: 81-568-51-5370; E-mail: n-maruyama@isc.chubu.ac.jp. FundingThis study was carried out upon receiving a JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)15K20819 as well as a research grant from the Mitsubishi Foundation. Conflict of interestNo conflict of interest has been declared by the authors. © 2018 International Council of NursesThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Original Article essential for policy development and implementation in areas of human and fiscal resource allocations and meeting training/education needs.Keywords: Chronic Diseases, Community Health Nursing, Database System, Electronic Health Records, Information Technology, Resource-Poor Countries, Rural Areas, System Usability, Thailand IntroductionInformation and communication technology (ICT) is an effective tool to promote health care in resource-poor countr...

Under-reporting of TB cases and associated factors: a case study in China

“…Like China, the health information management systems in many low-and middle-income countries are fragmented and often include multiple vertical systems designed to meet the requirements of the national government or international organizations/donors. As a result, similar problems occur in other low and middle-income countries (2,17,(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)30). For example, in Indonesia, the reporting forms in each health center are different, which results in missing data and hampers the data standardization process (2,17,30).…”

“…Research on Indonesia found that its private health sector hardly reports TB cases, as required by its national health legislation (22). Similarly, there is also evidence that India, Namibia, and Thailand all suffer from a lack of national data standardization and accessibility (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28), and might not accurately report the number of confirmed TB cases. It is also reasonable to assume that many other low-and middle-income countries without high functioning health information management systems could face similar problems.…”

“…This is particularly hindersome in China where there are a high number of internal migrant workers, such hierarchical information systems make it difficult to trace the TB patients moving from one place to another especially as TB treatment regimens take many months to complete. In other lowand middle-income countries, accessing data is a common problem (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). In India, health institutions generate inconsistent and duplicated health data, and there is no comprehensive HIS to provide government offices and researchers with essential information for analyzing and surveilling data quality (22).…”

“…In Thailand, data is collected by community health nurses on paper and then stored in cabinets. While some information is eventually entered into the government database, nurses and other healthcare workers cannot access it (25).…”

Needs assessment of caregivers of children with disabilities in resource-limited settings

“…In Thailand, health-promoting hospitals were placed within approximately 10,000 inhabitants; and community health nurses (CHNs) were employed 19 ) , who are key personnel in community health programs. Their activities are focused on health promotion and disease prevention, such as maternal and child health, prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, and infectious disease control.…”