Public Health Project

After meeting with hospital and public health officials in Lambarene, I now have the support to begin a health education program. The ultimate goal is to provide comprehensive health education/ disease prevention for patients in the Lambarene region (Middle Ooguee Region). This will be done by training nurses and community health care workers posted in their designated villages. In addition, we intend to use local artists to create health education materials such as poster animations.

The first step in this process is identifying key members of the health care community who are going to be the major players in the implementation of this project. It is extremely important that these individuals have ownership of the program as my time here is limited to 3 months. I am also in the process of developing a survey/ questionnaire which will be used to assess the level of knowledge of the nursing staff at the hospital. This will aid us in addressing appropriate health education topics and will also serve as an evaluation tool when the training is complete. Once the nurses have been trained, they will be responsible for conducting health education sessions with their patients.