Primary Health Care and Multipurpose Health Worker Role
What this domain tests
This domain tests the MPHW’s place in primary health care: sub-centre and outreach services, home visits, screening, referral, maternal and child health, family planning, immunization, and teamwork with ANM, ASHA, and medical officers.
Core rules
- Primary health care is first-contact, continuous, comprehensive, community-based care. The MPHW is a link between households and facilities.
- Core tasks include growth monitoring, antenatal and postnatal follow-up, immunization support, nutrition counselling, family planning advice, vector surveillance, and health education.
- Screening is not diagnosis. Abnormal findings must be referred according to protocol.
- Home visits should be planned, respectful, confidential, and recorded. Danger signs in pregnancy, newborns, and children need urgent referral.
- The MPHW works under standing orders and supervision. Do not prescribe beyond authorized scope.
- Referral must be safe: stabilize if trained, arrange transport, inform the receiving facility, and document.
Worked example
A pregnant woman at 32 weeks has painless vaginal bleeding. The MPHW should not wait for a routine visit or perform a home examination. The correct action is to arrange urgent referral to a facility with obstetric care, keep the woman resting, avoid a vaginal examination, and inform the ANM or medical officer. The reasoning is that painless bleeding may indicate placenta praevia, and vaginal examination can cause severe hemorrhage.
Traps
Do not diagnose or start unauthorized medicines. Do not promise a normal outcome. Do not delay referral for danger signs. Do not breach confidentiality. Do not record a service as given when it was only advised.