Title: Prepare action plans and schedules
Course: Health Management, Ethics and Research - Ethiopia (Full)

Prepare action plans and schedules

You now need to develop a practical action plan with respect to the objectives you have set (Figure 3.5). The following steps should help you do this. Box 3.3 shows an example of how the plan can be stated.

Figure 3.5 Your action plans can be pasted on the wall of the Health Post so everyone knows what you hope to achieve. (Photo: Tom Heller)

Box 3.3 Hygiene and sanitation plan

The problem | Village J has no access to safe water and there is a high rate of neonatal death from diarrhoea. The community is difficult to reach because of poor roads.
Objective | To provide health education on hygiene and sanitation to 75% of mothers at household level.
Strategy and activities | The work is to be done by model households. The strategy is to train a Health Extension Practitioner who will then train the model households.
Resources | Health Extension Practitioner X will deliver refresher training on hygiene and sanitation to households.
Organisation | The training of model households will take place in the village hall.
Control | Each model household will keep a simple record of the number of women reached.

Look at the plan in Box 3.3. How will you know if a plan has been effective?

Show answer

If lots of mothers are taught about hygiene and sanitation the plan could be considered to be effective. But the real test will be if there are fewer deaths from diarrhoea in the future.