Investigating Funding Policies for New Clinics in Rural Northwest Region, Cameroon.

Abstract Healthcare policies are complex health promotion strategies used by healthcare policy designers to create awareness, educate, and develop the capacity of sustainable health promotion practices in rural communities. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate an occurrence...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ngwa, Chenwi Mbuoko
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: ScholarWorks 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4540
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5644&context=dissertations
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Summary:Abstract Healthcare policies are complex health promotion strategies used by healthcare policy designers to create awareness, educate, and develop the capacity of sustainable health promotion practices in rural communities. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate an occurrence being experience by rural residents in the NWR of Cameroon where residents lacked nearby healthcare clinics where they can seek medical treatment and to determine if there were any funding policy requirements for the construction of new rural community clinics at the NW Regional Delegation of Public Health. Using Wright's conceptual framework on policy analysis and evaluation and Coleman's rational action theory, data were collected through in-depth interviews from a sample of 10 participants composed of healthcare policy designers and rural community residents. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi's 7-step method for analyzing phenomenological data. Findings indicated that the lack of primary health care clinics in rural communities imposed five main challenges which limit access to rural healthcare: the non-availability of healthcare facilities in rural settings, inaccessibility to rural communities, the unaffordability of healthcare in rural communities and lack of healthcare insurance, unacceptability due to lack of health education and social stigma, as well as lack of accommodation for new clinics. Furthermore, the Minister of Public Health use existing healthcare funding policy requirements at the NW regional delegation to make final policy decisions. The results of this study may be used to create positive social change by establishing nonbiased health policy intervention strategies and will also help the Government of Cameroon to establish health promotion policy guidelines and policy adjustments that address the lack of clinics in rural NWR of Cameroon.