Primary care provider perspectives on a rehabilitation guidance tool for low-resource contexts

Background: Primary healthcare facilities in low-resource settings have an inadequate rehabilitation workforce. The existing primary care providers (PCPs) have low awareness of population rehabilitation needs and are ill-equipped to provide basic rehabilitation services in the absence of rehabilitation professionals. A key strategy to address the unmet rehabilitation needs involves empowering existing PCPs to identify rehabilitation needs and provide basic rehabilitation services. Aim: This study explored the perceptions of PCPs about the acceptability, suggested improvements and potential users to consider when developing and implementing the proposed innovative tool to help PCPs identify, refer and provide basic rehabilitation interventions in low-resource settings. Setting: Ten systematically selected primary healthcare (PHC) facilities in two districts in Manicaland, Zimbabwe and two districts in the Eastern Cape, South Africa comprised the study setting. Methods: A descriptive, exploratory qualitative design using individual semi-structured interviews with 37 PCPs. Data were transcribed and thematically analysed using Atlas.ti 22.2. Results: The findings revealed five dominant themes: (1) perceived benefits of the proposed tool; (2) concerns about the proposed tool; (3) suggestions on improvements to the tool; (4) suggestions on training and (5) potential users of the rehabilitation guidance tool. Conclusion: This tool provides a potentially viable strategy for building the rehabilitation capacity of PCPs in these low-resource settings. The suggestions provided regarding improvements to the design and content of the tool and training will be considered in the continuing development and implementation phases. Contribution: The study builds on previous work on developing low-cost innovative interventions for strengthening primary care rehabilitation in low-resource settings.