Videos for training and health promotion

Community Health Workers (CHW) live an work in villages and townships in poor countries. They have a very short health education, spanning from a few weeks to one year. They nevertheless cater for health services in their area and deal with pregnancy check-ups, child nutrition, malaria treatment, HIV/AIDS care, improvement of sanitation, etc. 

Much as the CHWs receive initial training, they still need ways of sustaining their knowledge when working with communities. The challenge is to ensure that the mode of continuous learning captivates the CHWs. Video is a powerful training medium. Training videos embedded in electronic patient information systems therefore contribute to sustainability in two ways. First, the health workers watching the videos learn, and their knowledge does not vanish. Second, health promotion videos may trigger a more health behaviour in the communities.