SMCH/HCDS/18: Job responsibilities of Health Education Officers

Quadrant-I

Personal Details

Role Name Affiliation

Principal Prof. CP Mishra Department of Community Medicine,
Investigator Institute of Medical Sciences,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

Paper Coordinator Prof. Najam Khalique Department of Community Medicine,

J N Medical College, AMU, Aligarh
Assistant Professor
Content Writer Dr. Urfi Department of Community Medicine,
J N Medical College, AMU, Aligarh
Department of Community Medicine,
Content Reviewer Prof. Najam Khalique J N Medical College, AMU, Aligarh

Description of Module

Items Description of Module

Subject name Social Medicine & Community Health
Paper name Health Care Delivery System
Module name/Title Job responsibilities of Health Education Officer/ Health Educator
Module Id SMCH/HCDS/18
Pre-requisites Understanding of IEC and BCC activities
Objectives To know the job responsibilities of Health Educator
Keywords Competency based curriculum, educational material, health education

1
Introduction

Health education is a profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass
environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual
health.[1] It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a
manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health. However, as there are multiple
definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education.
The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education
as "any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals,
groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and the skills needed to make quality
health decisions." [2]

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion this module, the reader should be able to:

 Demonstrate ability to understand the meaning and importance of health education.

 Identify role and responsibilities of health educator
 Demonstrate the ability to understand the various IEC and BCC activities.

 Enumerate functions of health educator.

Main Text

1. Health Education:
The World Health Organization defined Health Education as "comprising of consciously
constructed opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to
improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are
conducive to individual and community health." [3]

2. The Role and responsibilities of the Health Educator

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the aim of public health was controlling the harm
from infectious diseases, which were largely under control by the 1950s. By the mid 1970s it was clear
that reducing illness, death, and rising health care costs could best be achieved through a focus on health
promotion and disease prevention. At the heart of the new approach was the role of a health educator A
health educator is “a professionally prepared individual who serves in a variety of roles and is specifically
trained to use appropriate educational strategies and methods to facilitate the development of policies,
procedures, interventions, and systems conducive to the health of individuals, groups, and communities”
(Joint Committee on Terminology, 2001, p. 100). In January 1978 the Role Delineation Project was put
into place, in order to define the basic roles and responsibilities for the health educator. The result was a
Framework for the Development of Competency-Based Curricula for Entry Level Health Educators
(NCHEC, 1985). A second result was a revised version of A Competency-Based Framework for the
Professional Development of Certified Health Education Specialists (NCHEC,1996). These documents
outlined the seven areas of responsibilities which are shown below.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_education]

2
Responsibility I: Assessing individual and community needs for health education
-Provides the foundation for program planning.
-Determines what health problems might exist in any given groups.
-Includes determination of community resources available to address the problem.
-Community empowerment encourages the population to take ownership of their health problems.
-Includes careful data collection and analysis.

Responsibility II: Plan health education strategies, interventions, and programs

-Actions are based on the needs assessment done for the community (see Responsibility I).
-Involves the development of goals and objectives which are specific and measurable.
-Interventions are developed that will meet the goals and objectives.
-According to rule of sufficiency, strategies are implemented which are sufficiently robust, effective
enough, and have a reasonable chance of meeting stated objectives.

Responsibility III: Implement health education strategies, interventions, and programs

-Implementation is based on a thorough understanding of the priority population.
-Utilize a wide range of educational methods and techniques.

Responsibility IV: Conduct evaluation and research related to health education

-Depending on the setting, utilize tests, surveys, observations, tracking epidemiological data, or other
methods of data collection.
-Health Educators make use of research to improve their practices.

3
Responsibility V: Administer Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs
-Administration is generally a function of the more experienced practitioner.
-Involves facilitating cooperation among personnel, both within and between programs.

Responsibility VI: Serve as a Health Education Resource Person

-Involves skills to access needed resources, and establish effective consultative relationships.

Responsibility VII: Communicate and Advocate for Health and Health Education
-Translates scientific language into understandable information.
-Address diverse audience in diverse settings.
-Formulates and support rules, policies and legislation.
-Advocate for the profession of health education.

Although it is desirable to have one Health Educator in every Primary Health centre (PHC). However, at
least one Health Educator should be available in each block i.e. at block headquarter level PHC. He/she
will be under the immediate administrative control of the PHC Medical Officer. He/she will be
responsible for providing support to all health and family welfare programmes in the block.

3. Ability to understand the various IEC and BCC activities.

As the main responsibility of health education officer/heath educator is to create awareness about existing
health services and promote methods of prevention and promotion of disease and health. HE should be
equipped with the skills of educational process as well as motivational skills. In fact his ability to
understand the various IEC and BCC activities is given to have significant impact of primary health care
services.

4. Duties and functions health educator at PHC

[Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) Guidelines for Primary Health Centres Revised 2012.]

 He/she will have with him/her all information relevant to development activities in the block,
particularly concerning health and family welfare, and will utilize the same for programme
planning.
 He/she will develop his/her work plan in consultation with the Medical Officer of his/ her PHC
and the concerned Block Extension Educator.

NOTE –
The medical officer is captain of the health team at primary health centre.
The Medical Officer of Primary Health Centre (PHC) is responsible for implementing all activities
grouped under Health and Family Welfare delivery system in PHC area.
By virtue of his designation, it is implied that he will be solely responsible for the proper functioning of
the PHC, and activities in relation to RCH, NRHM and other National Programs.
The Block Extension Educator is the kind pin for organizing Information, Education and Communication
activities relating to Health and Family Welfare Programme in the Primary Health Centre/ Block
Area. He would be under the immediate administrative Control of the Medical Officer of the Primary
Health Centre and he will function under the technical supervision and guidance of the District Mass

4
Education and Information Officer. His main functioning would relate to the promotion of Health and
Family Welfare Programme. He will consult District health Officer in formulating the special programme
for his Primary Health Centre.

 He/she will collect, analyse and interpret the data in respect of extension education work in
his/her PHC area.
 He/she will be responsible for regular maintenance of records of educational activities, tour
programmes, daily dairies and other registers, and will ensure preparation and display of relevant
maps and charts in the PHC.
 He/she will assist the Medical Officer, PHC in conducting training of health workers and
ASHAs.
 He/she will organize the celebration of health days and weeks and publicity programmes at local
fairs, on market days, etc.
 He/she will organize orientation training for health and family welfare workers, opinion leaders,
local medical practitioners, school teachers, dais and other involved in health and family welfare
work.
 He/she will assist the organizing mass communication programmes like film shows, exhibition,
lecturers and dramas.
 He/she will supervise the work of field workers in the area of education and motivation.

As we all are aware that education for health begins with people. He/she should try to motivate them with
whatever interests they may have in improving their living conditions and he/she should try to develop in
them a sense of responsibility for health conditions for themselves as individuals, as members of families,
and as communities.
In case of control of communicable disease, health education commonly includes an appraisal of what is
known by a population about a disease, an assessment of habits and attitudes of the people as they relate
to spread and frequency of the disease, and the presentation of specific means to remedy observed
deficiencies.

 He/she will supply educational material on health and family welfare to health workers in the
block.
 While on tour he/she will verify entries in the eligible couple register for every village and do
random checking of family welfare acceptors.
 While on tour he/she will check the available stock of conventional contraceptive with the depot
holders and the kits with HWs and ASHAs.
 He/she will help field workers in winning over resistant cases and drop-outs in the health and
family welfare programmes. For example Mission Indradhanush was launched in 25-December-
2014 to reach those children who left out in universal immunization programme –in order to
increase immunization coverage.
 He/she will maintain a complete set of educational aids on health and family welfare for his/her
own use and for training purpose. He/she will organize population education and health education
sessions in schools and for out of school children and youth.

 He/she will maintain a list of prominent acceptors of family planning methods and opinion village
wise and will try to involve them in the promotion of health and family welfare programmes.
 He/she will prepare a monthly report on the progress of educational activities in the block and
send it to the higher authority.
 Health promotion related IEC and BCC activities.

5
  Many health conditions are caused by risk behaviors, such as problem drinking, substance use,
smoking, reckless driving, overeating, or unprotected sexual intercourse. These health-
compromising behaviors can be eliminated by self-regulatory efforts, and health-enhancing
behaviors can be adopted instead, such as physical exercise, weight control, preventive nutrition,
dental hygiene, condom use, or accident prevention through Information, Education,
Communication (IEC) and Behavior Change Communication, or BCC. BCC and IEC are
employed in HIV and TB prevention projects.

Summary

Health education is an effective tool that helps improve health in developing nations. It not only teaches
prevention and basic health knowledge but also conditions ideas that re-shape everyday habits of people
with unhealthy lifestyles in developing countries. This type of conditioning not only affects the immediate
recipients of such education but also future generations will benefit from an improved and properly
cultivated ideas about health that will eventually be ingrained with widely spread health education. A
health educator is “a professionally prepared individual who serves in a variety of roles and is specifically
trained to use appropriate educational strategies and methods to facilitate the development of policies,
procedures, interventions, and systems conducive to the health of individuals, groups, and communities.
He/She develop his/her work plan in consultation with the Medical Officer of his/her PHC and the
concerned Block Extension Educator. He /She also promote health related IEC and BCC Activities.

References:

1. Donatelle, R. (2009). Promoting Healthy Behavior Change. Health: The basics. (pp. 4). 8th
edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Incedition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
2. Joint Committee on Terminology (2001). "Report of the 2000 Joint Committee on Health
Education and Promotion Terminology". American Journal of Health Education 32 (2): 89–
103.
3. World Health Organization. (1998). List of Basic Terms. Health Promotion Glossary. (pp. 4).
Retrieved May 1, 2009, Available from http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/hp_glossary_en.pdf
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_education.
5. Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) Guidelines for Primary Health Centres Revised 2012.