Introduction

This final study session is rather different from the previous study sessions. It is based on one extended case study, which has been designed to help you think more about all the issues that you have been learning about. No single case study can reflect precisely the situation that you will come across in your work as a health professional. However, the case study that follows includes examples of many of the situations that you will encounter wherever your work takes place. It highlights the work of an imaginary health professional called Alemitu, who has to deal with many of the management, ethical and data collection issues that health professionals routinely face in their working lives. In this case study, we focus on health issues relating to immunization of children and parental beliefs about measles. As you go through the session you will see that many of the issues are related to management functions and the final section asks you to consider the case study in this light.