Performance And Satisfaction Of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives At The Sub-Centre Level In Two Blocks Of Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India

Background: Responsible, productive and competent health workforce is an essential pre-requisite for effective health outcomes and favourable health indicators. Existing on geographical and organizational periphery of the formal health care delivery system, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) operate from subcentres, catering 5000 population in plains and 3000 in hills. Darjeeling district has wide geographical variations, thus finding the difficulties faced by ANMs in the area are of utmost necessity, so that these issues are addressed and productive outcome of health workforce ensured. Objective: To assess performance and satisfaction of ANMs working in the two studied blocks of Darjeeling district. Materials and Methods: All the ANMs working in the two randomly selected blocks of Darjeeling district, one situated in hilly terrain and one in plains were studied for one year. A self –administered questionnaire incorporating the three major areas of assigned responsibility with identified core activities based on West Bengal State Government Orderwas used to assess their performance which was graded as Good, Poor and Average. Satisfaction of ANMs in different components was assessed using a Measure of Job Satisfaction Scale. Results: A total of 41 ANMs were studied. Majority of ANMs performed all the activities and were graded as good performers. They were dissatisfied regarding their pay scale, workload and training received. However no significant difference was observed due to geographical variation among ANMs. Conclusion – Though all identified core activities were carried out their performance grading varied. Most of the ANMs were dissatisfied. A larger study is recommended.