THE WORKLOAD OF A MIDWIFE IN VARIOUS TYPES OF TASK DIVISION IN A HEALTH POST

In spite of very brilliant achievements in Iran health system, there are some
issues should be considered such as shortage and inappropriate distribution of resources and
mismatching between the community health needs and the amount of human resources. An issue that
is necessary to be considered by managers is appropriateness of human resources in service delivery
units. Health Posts are one of these service delivery units. Different types of task division between
midwife and family health worker in the Health Posts is totally possible. This study assesses the
workload and number of required workforces in the Health Posts with different types of work
division.
Methods & Materials: In this study, a midwife’s workload was calculated and compared for different
scenarios of task division in a Health Post in Kashan city using a combined approach considering
need-based method of Pileroodi and utilization-based method of WHO named WISN method
(Workload Indicator Staffing Need).
Results: If a midwife provides merely her own special services, the workload will be only 3.5% of
overall family health workload in a Health Post with 12500 populations. If a midwife provides any
services of maternal health program to all population of the Health Post in addition to her own special
services, this proportion will be 24%. In these two scenarios one midwife and three family health
workers are required. If a midwife provides special services to all population of the Health Post and
provision of other services are divided between midwife and family health workers, their workloads
are equal and just one midwife and two family health workers will be required.
Conclusion: If a midwife provides any services of maternal health program to the Health Post
populations completely, the workload will be less than that of family health worker. So dividing all of
the services between midwife and family health workers, increases efficiency in addition to achieving
equality in task division between staff and increasing accessibility