Assessment of capacity needs of health personnel in management of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rivers State: a case for health promotion in the era of COVID-19

Abstract

Sexual and Gender-based violence (SGBV) is a common and serious public health problem affecting millions of Nigerians which COVID-19 has escalated. The capacity of health personnel in managing SGBV survivors should be determined in order to ensure effective health promotion. This paper therefore investigated the capacity needs of health personnel in Rivers State in managing SGBV survivors. The study adopted descriptive survey research design which was carried out during a workshop organized for randomly selected health personnel in the employ of the Rivers State government in August, 2021. The questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection, administered on 40 respondents which included doctors, nurses, community health extension workers (CHEWs) and medical records officers. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study, and data were analysed using mean, percentage and chi-square. The result showed that majority of the respondents (67.5%) needed training on skills of managing SGBV survivors. The hypothesis showed significant difference on the knowledge level of SGBV among nurses and doctors in Rivers State. The study recommended that government and non-governmental organisations should provide health workers in Rivers State with comprehensive capacity training on management of SGBV survivors to achieve health promotion.