Conflict Situation for Health Care Workers: A Case Study of the Occupational Challenges in Kasangati Health Centre IV and Their Implications for Patient Care.

Many factors influence a country’s ability to provide quality health services for its people. Particularly, quality health care hinges upon the availability of properly trained and equipped health care workers (HCWs) to deliver effective care. Resource-strained countries committed to the Millennium Development Goals are confronting the reality that shortages and uneven distribution of HCWs threaten their capacities to encourage and establish healthy communities. A scarcity in HCWs is one challenge of public health initiatives and places stress on existing HCWs. Other challenges faced by HCWs severely affect performance, motivation, and overall care-giving ability. This study aims to examine the particular occupational challenges facing health care workers at Kasangati Health Centre IV in order to analyze their impacts on patient care and understand how the general quality of health care fits into the development of a country. A large component of this study consisted of the researcher partaking in participant observation at Kasangati Health Centre IV in order to gain a more accurate perspective of the issues. Individual interviews were also obtained and supplemented with secondary sources in order to gain a more holistic view of the current situation. From this study, the researcher determined that the challenges to health care workers are exceptionally prevalent and their impacts have the capacity to severely affect the quality of care patients receive. The physical, social, and psychological challenges confronting health care workers stem from a plethora of sources including lack of adequate governmental support, mismanagement at the local and district levels, and loss of internal motivation over time. The results of this study are intended to initiate a preliminary examination in order to further explore the linkages of health care workers, public health, and development