It’s all in the detail: developing effective health-related job aids

Authors: Malaria Consortium

Malaria Consortium has had extensive experience designing, developing, implementing and evaluating a variety of job aids. An integral part of our work is to strengthen capacity and improve the performance of health workers to be able to prevent, diagnose, treat and care for groups most at risk of malaria and other communicable diseases.

This paper describes Malaria Consortium’s iterative and research-based experience developing, implementing and evaluating job aids for community health workers and health facility workers in Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan and Uganda. It summarises six criteria critical for a well-designed job aid, and discusses challenges encountered and lessons learned.

1. Communicate complex information accurately and in an easy-tounderstand format.
2. Content must be current, accurate, and consistent with health policies and guidelines.
3. Provide clear options for critical decision pathways.
4. Describe processes and procedures in alignment with the training curriculum and existing healthcare practices and tasks.
5. Include culturally and literacy-appropriate language, illustrations and symbols to communicate key messages.
6. Produce cost-effective quality materials which are durable and attractive.