Table 3 Key facilitators of IMCI implementation in the Philippines
Key Facilitators | Highlighted Participants’ response |
|---|---|
Holistic approach of the strategy | “… as I told you, it’s complete. So it’s like taking a complete history and physical examination of the patient. You just don’t deal with one symptom based on the account of the patient, you have to explore, other aspects apart from the management … from immunization, from nutrition, everything.” (Medical Doctor, 3 years implementing IMCI) “...we gained deeper understanding, we now assess everything. Ahm.. for example, what are the danger signs, how to manage them. It is like your bible, it has colors on it, it has pink, green, yellow …” (Nurse, 7 years implementing IMCI) |
Improvements in child health | “It’s because our trend for the morbidity cases got lower compared before. When IMCI came, it reduced the morbidity cases since we already have preventive measures at home, and parents are already taught when to refer patients to the midwives or to the center …” (Nurse, 17 years implementing/supervising IMCI) |
Integral component in daily routine work | “… but for me, that IMCI program is really helpful in our municipality … although it looks like a curative it is somewhat actually on the preventive … So, we usually prevent the possible complication. Like the ARI [Acute Respiratory Infection], we treated that early, so it will not progress to pneumonia. The diarrheal diseases, without signs of dehydration, if you treated that early in the barangay, it will not progress to diarrhea with severe dehydration that will lead to admission or confinement in the district hospital. So, it’s somewhat curative but still it plays a major role in the preventive side of public health.” (Medical Doctor, 4 years implementing/supervising IMCI) |