Keeping Smiles on Their Faces
It's been about three weeks since I was in Malawi, and I haven't stopped thinking about the smiling faces of the health workers at the Pirimiti Community Hospital. As I watched them go about their work, I wondered what it was that kept the smiles on their faces.
CapacityPlus is helping the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) strengthen human resources management in affiliated health facilities. I was visiting the hospital to better understand needs at the facility level.
One of the nurses I was observing approached me, and asked me if I needed any assistance. It was about 1:30 p.m. and the human resources officer and medical director that I was waiting to see had not yet arrived from their lunch break. The nurse offered to show me around the hospital as I waited.
I was shown to a large, airy, and well-labeled maternity ward that seemed to have been recently painted. The area was looking all spick-and-span, and it was so clean and inviting. As I walked through the ward, I kept thinking that I would be very comfortable having a baby at this facility. It was at this point that I understood the possible reasons for the smiles on the faces of the staff working there: the work environment seemed very welcoming. In addition to the clean environment for patients and staff, I found out that the hospital provides good housing facilities for its key staff within the hospital compound.
As we exited the ward, there was an open hall-like structure where there were several women who I later came to learn were “carers.” These carers were relatives or friends of patients who stayed in one large room and were responsible for cooking for the patient, with guidance from the hospital staff, until the patient was discharged. I was informed that this was the practice in most of the rural hospitals in the country and that this helped reduce the staffing and operational costs of running a kitchen at the hospital.
My short tour reminded me that, indeed, there is a lot that many resource-constrained facilities can do to improve the work environment and thereby influence staff satisfaction and willingness to remain at a facility, even if it is in a rural area like Zomba, Malawi.
This is a photo of a billboard along
the main road in Zomba that I came across on my way to visit another CHAM facility. It speaks loud and clear on why we need to treat our health workers well. I am sure that for many patients who have received quality health care, it must feel like the touch of an angel.
Doris Mwarey is the regional human resources technical advisor with the Africa Christian Health Associations Platform, a position supported by CapacityPlus. She is based in Kenya.
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Photo 1 by Adam Buzzacco. Photo 2 by Doris Mwarey.
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