BRIEF OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY HEALTH PRACTITIONERS

The idea of the community as the centre of health services delivery was advocated as far back in 1960s.From the concept of Basic Health Services.

Community Health Practitioners are Primary Health Care Professionals who had undertaken a standard training programme and passed the examinations set by the training institution and national regulatory body meant for the cadre and licensed.

They were created in 1978 by the then Military administration to work at the Primary Health Care system, with the aim of correcting the short-fall observed during third National Development Plan (1975-1980) period of our country, Nigeria. Community Health Practitioners are “core” polyvalent workers and these have remained the core Primary Health Care Workers in Nigerian Primary Health Care system. It is a family comprising:

·        Primary Health Care Tutors,

·        Community Health Officers,

·        Community Health Supervisors which training was stopped in 1990,

·        Community Health Assistants (now Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), and

·        Community Health Aides (now Junior Community Health Extension Workers (JCHEWs) respectively.

Community Health Practitioners, particularly, the CHEWs and JCHEWs are to provide both clinical & community-based duties and “while diagnosing and treating common conditions with simple but scientifically sound measures, in identifying pregnant women and ensuring that they deliver safely, identifying malnourished children and providing health education in the community and can contribute significantly to improvements of health in the community members.

They are also concerned with limiting health disparities and a large part of Community health practice by Community Health Practitioners is the fight for health care equity, quality, and accessibility through taking health care services to the door steps of the citizenry in the rural area in particular.

Community Health Practitioners are the frontline Primary Health Care Professionals charged with the responsibility of implementation of immunization programmes in Nigeria and therefore contributing significantly to the prevention and control of targeted vaccine preventable diseases in Nigeria Health System.