Peculiarities and prospects of rural health practice in Nigeria

Abstract

Delivery of quality health services to all and sundry including persons living in our numerous communities in Nigeria is a pre-requisite to improving national health indices. Strengthening the capacity of rural health practice centers to deliver health services to people in their domain is very vital in this regard. The peculiar characteristics of practicing health care in rural communities such as small defined geographical areas and the corresponding sociocultural mileu can be harnessed to improve the health indices of rural communities. On the other hand, providing the necessary support to address manpower shortage and infrastructural deficit in these setting is a task that government and other stakeholders must undertake. This paper focuses on the peculiar nature of delivering health care services in rural settings and draws attention to how these peculiarities may be harnessed for the benefits of rural communities.

Keywords: Rural health, health worker, community, infrastructure