Abstract

The community health practitioners (CHP) play an important role in primary health care services to the underserved population in rural area. Time and motion study of 26 CHPs in Kyungpook Province was conducted through work diary method for 6 consecutive days from the time they arrived until they left the primary health post (PHP) during the past 3 weeks from November 16 to December 5, 1987. The allocation of activity time by working category, service category, location of activity and CHP's function was analyzed according to the characteristics of CHPs i. e., age, marital status and experience as CHP. The major findings are as follows: The mean activity time per CHP in a week was 2,918 minutes. The length of their working hours as longer for older, married and more experienced CHPs than other. About 80% of the CHP's activities took place within the PHP and only about 20% occurred outside of the PHP. Working hours for the outdoor activities were longer for younger, single and less experienced CHPs than others. The allocation of activity time by working category showed 46.3% in the technical work and 18.7% in the administrative work. Working hours for the technical activities were longer for younger, single and less experienced CHPs than others. The percentage of activity time revealed greatest as much as 63.1% for direct patient care in technical word and 61.6% for record keeping in administrative work. Of the total working hours in a week, direct patient care and public health activities accounted for 29.2.% and 16.2%, respectively. Of the indoor activities, working hours for direct patient care were longer than those for public health activities. However, of the outdoor activities, working hours for public health activities were longer than those for direct patient care. The allocation of activity time by CHP's function showed 49.7% in management of common disease, 31.8% in management of PHP and technical supervision of village health workers, 9.5% in MCH and family planning, 6.6% in community health management and 2.4% in community approach. Based on these findings, it was found that CHPs were mainly working in the PHP with a majority of their time being spent of direct patient care rather than preventive and promotive health cares. To enhance the preventive and promotive health services of the CHPs and to involve the activities for community development, refresher course for CHPs should be reinforced and supervision mechanism of the CHPs should be established and operated in Gun- and province- level.