Effect of learning organization workshop and mentoring on referral system for antenatal care in south Sulawesi Indonesia

Aims: The study was intended to improve referral system on antenatal care in Parepare district in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia.

 

Methods: Sixty participants (core teams) from different government sectors together with community members (informal leaders) were invited for learning organization (LO) workshop and mentoring activities during two-consecutive year.  The workshop was focused on five dimentions of LO including mental model, personal mastery, shared vision, team learning, and system thinking.  Mentoring was conducted after the workshop to help participants developing a root-caused analysis for the problem of antenatal care and maternal mortality and also developing a strategic planning and its implementation in the community. A process documentation research (PDR) was used to assess and observe the process of the study.   Quantitative and qualitative data was obtained by trained field workers before intervention (workshop) and one and two years of the activities.

 

Results: Several participants become inactive during the course of the study but some were very active and inviting some community members in their program activities.  Pregnant mothers together with their husband and other family members were involved in the program.  There were several activities created by the community itself to prevent pregnant mothers from being late referring to the health institution. Performance of household, community, and institution in helping pregnant mothers who faced problems were improved.  After two year of study, case reported morbidity of pregnant mother were increased in the health institutions while mortality reduced significantly.  

 

Conclussion: LO may improve referral system in antenatal care in the study and could be used to improve community participation in other health programs.