<p> Inadequate health care infrastructures and lack of qualified and trained health care professionals are barriers against timely and prompt access to health care services in the rural communities of Akwa Ibom State. The absence of immediate health care services, coupled with the lack of basic infrastructure and qualified health care professionals, has led to high mortality from preventable causes. Compounding the problem are poor governance, endemic corruption, and lack of involvement of trained professionals for management of human and material resources to support health care delivery, particularly in building the capacity and removing barriers and obstacles to effective delivery of primary health care services at the local community level. A quantitative quasi-experimental research study was used to evaluate access to health care services in the rural community in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria by introducing mobile phones and community health care educators. Four sets of hypotheses were tested to provide answers to two research questions using statistical analysis. The results indicated the importance of health care facilities and access to qualified health care professionals and the direct link to improved clinical outcome. The myriad of evidence presented in the literature that telemedicine infrastructure has been effectively used to create access to rural communities in most third world and developing countries was supported through this study. The results indicated mobile communication technology can make the difference in the Nigerian health care service delivery, particularly in remote villages.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3583317 |
| Date | 12 August 2014 |
| Creators | Amos, Isaac Thompson |
| Publisher | University of Phoenix |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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