Factors Promoting Performance of Village Health Volunteers

Abstract

This qualitative research aimed to study factors promoting the performance of village health volunteers (VHVs) in Sukhothai Province. The participants were 17 VHVs, 10 public health officials (PHOs) under the Ministry of Public Health and PHOs under the Ministry of Interior, 12 local leaders and area leaders, and 11 family members of VHVs. They were selected using the maximum variation sampling technique. In-depth interviews with observations were employed for the data collection, after which the data were analyzed by content analysis, and the reliability of the data was verified by triangulation. The results revealed that factors promoting the performance of VHVs were four main factors: (1) individual-level factors consist of eleven minor factors as follows: age, time, readiness, smartphone, other positions in the community, inspiration, voluntary, intention, role perception, workload, and responsibility; (2) family-level factors consist of one minor factor as follows: family; (3) communitylevel factors consist of five minor factors as follows: area context, budget, materials and equipment, teamwork, PHOs; and (4) Social-level factors consist of five minor factors as follows: association network, participation, social support, motivation, and recognition. These research results indicate that related agencies should use factors promoting the performance of VHVs to promote and support VHVs to perform better.