Southern Ethiopia - Gwent Health Link

Evaluation methods – data collection plans and tools

Plans for collection of evaluation data/evidence in the three Health Centres in March 2008 focused on answering simple questions relating to the aims and objectives of the project and the initial activities/work undertaken, i.e. was the training being put into practice; were knowledge and skills being passed on; was the equipment provided suited to needs and was it being used, correctly; was there a more positive attitude to the Health Centres from the local community; did the community use the services of the Health Centre .

Data collection methods included:

• examination of documentary evidence (records; statistics; wall charts)
• observation (of equipment and resources being used; care given; meetings held; the daily routine of the Health Centre)
• as appropriate, taking photographs to record current (March 2008) conditions and/or changes made since November 2007
• interviews with staff to determine their experiences of working in the Health Centre and their training and resource needs; also to assess how training and/or resources provided in November had been used (or not)
• interviews with patients and /or community representatives to obtain their perceptions of the positive and negative aspects of health care provision and any changes observed
• interviews with students to discuss their experiences and perceptions of the Health Centre as a practice placement
• pre and post intervention tests with staff (reviewing ‘teaching logs’; carrying out on site computer skills tests)
• checking computer system logs that record the number of times a computer has been used

The work in each Health Centre was to be evaluated separately but similar tools used in each. In preparation for the visit some written checklists/schedules were devised in order to maximise the opportunities for systematically collecting the same information at each venue. The checklists/schedules covered ‘data collection plans, March 2008’ (appendix 1), ‘focus group interviews/discussions with community and health centre staff’ (appendix 2), ‘interviews with students’ (appendix 3) and ‘interviews with other personnel’ (appendix 4). Although one member of the Gwent team had prime responsibility for recording much of the data/evidence during the March visit and establishing baselines for future assessment, all Gwent team members would be contributing to the evaluation by collecting evidence in their field and documenting this in their written post visit report. A template for individual post visit reports (appendix 5) was therefore designed so that everyone could report in a similar format. The template relates individual contributions to the aims and objectives of the work of the Link and provides some consistency in focus to the individual reports.

At this stage in the project and evaluation, planning the evaluation activities and collecting evidence were largely the remit of Gwent team members however Ethiopian colleagues were invited to comment on the proposed schedules/checklists and discussed them with a Gwent team member at the start of the visit. They had subsequent input into data collection activities in the Health Centres.