Ecosystem Map
Healthcare providers play a critical role in any health system given their close, frequent interaction with clients. Providers need proper support to deliver quality care and help improve health outcomes among clients.
The Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map is a thinking tool designed to help you understand and consider diverse factors that influence facility-based provider behavior, and how they interact with one another, as you design or adjust your provider behavior change initiatives. This map allows you to observe the complex network of factors, including critical linkages, in a comprehensive and holistic way. The ecosystem map focuses primarily on the factors that influence facility-based providers working in family planning and reproductive health, though it can be applied across health areas.
“Provider behavior” refers to the way that providers act in response to people or situations in the course of delivering healthcare services to clients. Provider behavior is the outcome of a complex set of factors that are both internal (e.g., attitudes, values, and beliefs) and external (e.g., training and professional development, healthcare financing) to providers.
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Provider behavior change aims to positively shape and influence provider behavior by reducing barriers and challenges to behavior change. It also strengthens facilitators and opportunities for behavior change. Barriers and challenges can include lack of technical knowledge and medicine stockouts, while examples of facilitators and opportunities include supportive supervision and interpersonal communication skills. Achieving provider behavior change requires addressing key factors influencing target behaviors. The benefits of provider behavior change include the following improvements in facility-based healthcare delivery:
Increased job satisfaction for providers
Improved quality of healthcare services
Improved client experiences
Increased trust in and use of healthcare services
Increased adoption or maintenance of desired client behaviors
Impact on behavioral and health outcomes among clients
Source: Adapted from Breakthrough RESEARCH. (2019). Advancing provider behavior change programming. Research and Learning Agenda. Washington, DC: Population Council.
Examples of provider behavior change include the following:
Asking clients about their healthcare experiences and preferences
Assessing health literacy of clients and tailoring communication and service delivery
Providing family planning counseling that includes information on how to correctly use the chosen family planning method
Screening clients for experiences of violence and providing necessary referrals
Providing youth-friendly services on modern family planning method use
This is the map of actors, entities, and other elements that shape facility-based provider behavior, and how those factors interact with one another. The Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map presents factors and interrelationships that influence facility-based providers working in family planning and reproductive health.
The Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map is a thinking tool designed to help you understand and consider diverse factors that influence provider behavior and how they interact with one another. You can use this to design or adjust your provider behavior change initiatives. This map allows you to observe the complex network of factors, including critical linkages, in a comprehensive and holistic way.