Improving village health post (Ponkesdes) nurses’ performance, which model should be used?

Background: Village Health Post (Ponkesdes) has become a part of Public Health Nursing (PHN) program since year 2009 which criticized has a poor performance. From 2910 Ponkesdes that spread all over East Java region, only 10% of nurses implemented PHN. This situation will hamper the regional health development particularly and the nation commonly. Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a new model to improve the performance of Ponkesdes nurses’ especially in implementing PHN. Method: The method was an observational analytic with cross sectional approach. Multi stage random sampling was employed to decide the district and simple random sampling was assigned to choose the participants, a total of 117 Ponkesdes nurses involved in this study. The study conducted in four districts in East Java Province (Blitar, Jember, Lamongan, and Bangkalan). Data were collected by questionnaire on variables namely reinforcing, personal, cognitive, affective, commitment, interaction, and nurses’ performance factors. The Partial Least Squares (PLS)-method is used for constructing predictive model. Results: This study found a new model which was developed based on combination of Health Promotion Model (HPM) and Health Interaction Model (HIM) with additional of reinforcing factor. Statistical result confirmed that personal, affection and interaction factors considered as important factors in improving Ponkesdes nurses’ performance. Conclusion: Ponkesdes nurses’ performance will improve by considering three main factors, personal, affection and interaction. This model can be adapted by Provincial District Health Office East Java Province as the main actor in regional health development. In addition, this model may become a reference for other province in improving their nurses’ performance in community setting and other country that have similar program in PHN.