Description and Goals of the Organization
Moms Connect foundation is a recently registered company limited by guarantee foundation. Its operations are currently based in Nigeria but focused in only a few states including Abuja, Lagos and Enugu. However with the growth of the company the focus is expected to expand to other states in Nigeria and the neighboring countries. The first major goal of the organization is to improve the policy surrounding maternal healthcare which will lead to an improved maternal care during pregnancy, child birth, and after child birth. The organization also aims at ensuring preventive medicine is introduced to Nigerians beginning with the focal states. Other areas of focus of the organization include: wife battering and abuse, child education, welfare of the elderly citizens, and widowhood.
Problem Statement and Purpose of the Research
Maternal health care in Nigeria is currently at deplorable state following reports of high cases of maternal mortality. This problem is partly a result of the condition of both government and private health institutions and partly caused by lack of access to quality healthcare. Because of the poor condition in the health institutions, the workers including medical professionals have contributed to the poor services given to mothers during maternity. One of the millennium development goals that the world intends to realize by 2015 is to reduce the ratio of maternal mortality. This goal can be realized only if maternal healthcare is improved.
With regards to this problem of maternal health, the research intends to identify the extent of its persistence in Abuja, Enugu, and Lagos, but specifically focusing on service delivery by health professionals. Through public awareness, the organization will be ready to support any woman who is ready to sue any hospital, doctor or nurse for ill treatment or neglect when they sought for maternity healthcare.
The second problem is the issue of preventive medicine. Currently Nigeria spends a lot of its national budget allocation on health in curative care. A very few percentage, less than 20%, of the health budgetary allocation is spend on preventive health and public health (Pate). However, this is very insufficient considering the fact that the country is one of the most populated countries in the world and the most populated in Africa. There is need to concentrate funding on preventing medicine
The foundation therefore intends to conduct a research to verify the extent of this problem in Nigeria specifically in the state of Lagos and Abuja. It seeks to find out the views of the people regarding preventive medicine and also provide an opportunity for people to give suggestions of the way forward. This will ensure that the few who do not frequently go to hospitals maintain the same status and more people follow suit.
Literature review
According to a report by the World Health Organization, Nigeria had the second highest maternity death ratio in the world in 2005. This figure has still not improved ever since, despite the one percent global decline in the ratio (CRP Nigeria). This implies that there are so many mothers in Nigeria and particularly the focal states of Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja who fail to survive their maternity period.
The reason for this is because of poor maternity health care services by both the medical institutions and medical professionals. Pregnant women are treated negatively whenever they seek for treatment in both public and private hospitals. Most of them are neglected and eventually fail to receive the kind of care that they truly require. As a result either the life of the baby or the mother is lost and sometimes the mother ends up bleeding excessively.
In addition, many Nigerians die from medical conditions that can be easily prevented through lifestyle. But they seem to believe that medical check-ups are only necessary when one falls ill. Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer are common medical conditions in Nigeria which can be prevented if the public are made aware of the need for a healthy lifestyle. Smoking, alcohol drinking and poor eating habits are risk factors for many of these preventable diseases however awareness programs to educate the public are not there or they are very minimal.
Research methodology and design
The design adopted for this study has been selected to ensure that all the information needed is gathered and help the researcher to deduce a conclusion relating to objectives of the research. As mentioned earlier, there will be two studies done to complete this project: one on focuses on improved maternity health care and while the second one focuses on introduction of preventive medicine in Nigeria. Mixed method research design that involves both qualitative and quantitative design methods will be used. This is because of the nature of data that will be collected for analysis. Both descriptive and numerical data have to be collected. Both primary and secondary data will be used for analysis. Secondary data will come from literature materials such as text books and journals of previous researches conducted in Nigeria.
Quantitative design involves collecting numerical data and analyzing the data using statistical data analysis methods (Bailey 23). This is specifically important especially for the second study about preventive medicine. The data collected from the questionnaires will have to be coded numerically using the statistical programs of analysis before running the actual analysis. Descriptive data will also be collected when it comes to seeking suggestions and views of the public regarding preventive medicine. Therefore a survey has to be conducted first in order to collect all the necessary data that is needed. A sample population for the survey will have to be selected.
For data collection a survey instrument or questionnaire will be used. In addition to this phone call interviews will be conducted with some of the selected sample population especially medical professionals and medical officers in the ministry of health. The questionnaires will be targeting pregnant mothers or any other mother in receiving prenatal or anti-natal care. The focal states are the ones selected for data collection for both researches.
The target population for the research is available judging from the literature review; therefore coming up with a representative sample would not be difficult. The first research seeks information from mothers receiving maternal health care and also those who have previously received maternal care from any health institution in focal states. The second research seeks information from the general Nigerian public regarding preventive medicine and healthcare. Therefore random sampling would be perfect in selecting a representative sample that is free of bias. Sampling will cover at least a good part of every region of the three focal states to reduce biasness. These states also have a large population density making it possible to reduce any variations of the sample.
The selected design method is not entirely perfect because it bears itself several limitations. One of the biggest limitations is the fear of validity and objectivity of the data collected; meaning, collecting incomplete and inaccurate data. At the same time, this can also imply misinterpreting the collected data by the research team or laying too much emphasis on specific data while disregarding others
Project timeline plan and budget
The budget for the program focuses more on personal salaries and fringe benefits of the research team. The team will mainly include a total of thirty individuals: five evaluators who will run the analysis, twenty student research assistants who will be responsible for data collection and entry, four supervisors and a training consultant for the week long training seminar. The total salary and fringe benefits for all these individuals adds up to $50,000. Other important and necessary cost is the cost of operation. This mainly includes traveling and accommodation costs for the team of researchers. They will be required to make trips to the three states and also conduct phone calls. Material to be used for the project will require photocopying money.
The first and most basic event in the timeline is a training seminar for all the members of the research team. The seminar will run for a one week where the team will be provided with the necessary information that they require to ensure the project is a success. Also during this seminar, the research team in charge of data collection will be given an opportunity to simulate how they will interact with the respondents. This will be more of a piloting exercise even though its main purpose will be for simulation and not to measure anything.
Works Cited
Bailey, R.A. Design of Comparative Experiments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
CRP Nigeria. The Deplorable State of Maternal Health Care in Nigeria. Web.
Pate, Muhammed Ali(Minister of state for health). Preventive Medicines Is the Way to Go Ruby Leo. 2011.