What they know about their work, barriers, and challenges faced by the community health workers while performing their multiple roles: mixed method study in India

Background: Accredited social health activist (ASHA) forms the backbone of National Health Mission (NHM) as they are the important link between the community and the health system, her services become very crucial for the success of NHM. They are occupied by multiples roles, responsibilities and they are expected to perform at optimum level. Aim was to assess the knowledge and practice of ASHA workers regarding their work responsibilities and to explore the barriers and challenges faced by them while performing their multiple roles. Methods: An explanatory mixed-methods study was conducted among community health workers (ASHA) of having at least one years of experience at Uttarakhand, India with 150 ASHAs for quantitative and 14 for qualitative. Purposive sampling was employed for both the approaches. Results: Quantitative approach shown that almost 91% of ASHA are having the knowledge about the importance of colostrum milk followed by importance of Anganwadi center (83%), immunization (79%), general health (70%), and birth preparedness (69%). The core thematic areas in qualitative result represented as personal, psychological, economic, social and environmental factors. They showed a level of unhappiness and distress related to their work overload and incentives. Conclusions: In general, ASHAs are having adequate knowledge about their job responsibilities, there is more training needed about maintaining the records and documentation process. There is immediate need to overcome the barriers and challenges they are facing, which can hamper their performance level.