DEPLOYED NURSES. Nurses under DOH's Human Resource for Health Deployment Program take part in a group exercise during a workshop on facilitating community learning. Supplied photo.

By Wilson J Hormeguera

The Governance and Leadership Institute (GLI) of Xavier University recently conducted a workshop on facilitating community learning for the deployed nurses under the Department of Health’s Human Resource for Health Deployment Program (HRHDP).

The deployed nurses are assigned in fifth and sixth class municipalities, under the 44 Focus Geographical Areas (FGA) Accelerated Sustainable Anti-Poverty Program (ASAP), Whole of Nation Initiative(WNI), Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB) projects, and other priority areas identified by DOH.

The DOH-deployed nurses are expected to assist in the implementation of various health programs of the local government units in accordance with the program goals and objectives of the health department, provide technical assistance during the implementation, help in disease surveillance, conduct health education campaigns and training, and aid in the supervision and monitoring of Community Health Teams (CHTs).

Through Structured Learning Activities (SLA), workshop facilitators GLI director Dr Dixon Yasay, Churchill Aguilar, and Robert de la Serna encouraged the participants to familiarize the basic principles of facilitation, techniques, and methodologies, including the use of indigenous materials within the community to facilitate the community’s learning effectively.

“Everything is new to us. We have been used to giving lectures in the conduct of our health education and training in the communities," said DOH-HRHDP supervisor Aurora Salcedo. "It will be different from now on.” 

Held from July 20 to 22 at Villa Paraisao Apartelle, Mambajao, Camiguin, the said workshop was initiated by DOH Northern Mindanao’s Human Resource Development Unit. ∎