Abstract
Research on community health workers (CHWs) has been on the increase in the past decades in Tanzania, focusing on the provision of maternal and child health (MCH) services. While performing their tasks, CHWs work within three constructs: the community, the state, and their professionalism. However, as CHWs work within these constructs, there exists scanty literature which discourses their experiences within the realm of the community, the state and their professionalism. This review aimed to articulate how these constructs facilitate or inhibit CHWs’ performance in improving MCH services. It employed a scoping review method in which peer-reviewed articles and grey literature from Tanzania on the experience of CHWs were reviewed. The search identified 287 sources from five databases: EbSco, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase. A total of 287 studies were identified, of which 28 met the inclusion criteria, and were thus included in the final review. The findings revealed that effective performance of CHWs and their inherent impediments rely heavily on the nature of the community, the state, and their professionalism. This review concludes that while CHWs play a substantial role in the provision of MCH services, their facilitators and impediments rely upon the realm of community, the state, and professionalism. Thus, to sustain the performance of CHWs, proper consideration of the interplay of these three constructs is imperative. In addition, there is a need for more scoping and systematic review of CHWs given the lack of relevant studies in Tanzania.
Recommended Citation
Mpambije, Chakupewa Joseph
(2024)
"Community, State and Professionalism: Negotiating the Experience of Community Health Workers in the Provision of Maternal and Child Health Services in Tanzania,"
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 13:
No.
2, Article 16.
DOI: 10.56279/13/2/5
Available at:
https://commons.udsm.ac.tz/jhss/vol13/iss2/16