ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE UNITS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN KLONGSAN DISTRICT

Abstract

This research aimed to study the organizational learning (OL) of the Thai private primary care unit (PCU) by exploring the phenomena. This organizational research chose an individual PCU to examine the organizational identity of the learning process. Thus, this research was qualitative under phenomenology, exploring the organization's experiences. As the former private PCU, Nan-Ah hospital was selected for its outstanding performance: leader in establishing warm community clinic association, best case study award in knowledge development, and smoking care clinic award in 2019. The twenty informants of the hospital participated in the interview. There were three executives, a chief primary care service, three public health coordinators, a physician, five health care officers, two pharmacists, and five registered nurses. For data validation, this research applied the interviews with community leaders and village health volunteers (VHV) and documentation. The collected data was analyzed with thematic analysis.

The hospital faced four challenges: becoming PCU, stakeholder changes, internal development, and contract cancellation. Nan-Ah hospital learned from feedback from the external environment before becoming a private PCU. When the hospital faced stakeholder changes, it selected representatives to receive feedback and build relationships. In the middle of the contract, the hospital set the job rotation practice with a policy setting for health promotion in the community. It learned from the external environment again after the contract. The results revealed the OL process of the Thai private PCU with the extension of 4I's OL processes: intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing. The external environment level with the process of interacting with the community was shown. Interaction with the community was needed for community development. On the other hand, community preparedness was also necessary. The highlight was the structure of the Thai community, where representatives play a vital role in development preparedness. Without the selecting representatives, Thai communities could not be well-organized to receive support. Furthermore, it was the initiative of the two fields' integration. The findings would also benefit future OL development in other fields.

This research aimed to study the organizational learning (OL) of the Thai private primary care unit (PCU) by exploring the phenomena. This organizational research chose an individual PCU to examine the organizational identity of the learning process. Thus, this research was qualitative under phenomenology, exploring the organization's experiences. As the former private PCU, Nan-Ah hospital was selected for its outstanding performance: leader in establishing warm community clinic association, best case study award in knowledge development, and smoking care clinic award in 2019. The twenty informants of the hospital participated in the interview. There were three executives, a chief primary care service, three public health coordinators, a physician, five health care officers, two pharmacists, and five registered nurses. For data validation, this research applied the interviews with community leaders and village health volunteers (VHV) and documentation. The collected data was analyzed with thematic analysis.

The hospital faced four challenges: becoming PCU, stakeholder changes, internal development, and contract cancellation. Nan-Ah hospital learned from feedback from the external environment before becoming a private PCU. When the hospital faced stakeholder changes, it selected representatives to receive feedback and build relationships. In the middle of the contract, the hospital set the job rotation practice with a policy setting for health promotion in the community. It learned from the external environment again after the contract. The results revealed the OL process of the Thai private PCU with the extension of 4I's OL processes: intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing. The external environment level with the process of interacting with the community was shown. Interaction with the community was needed for community development. On the other hand, community preparedness was also necessary. The highlight was the structure of the Thai community, where representatives play a vital role in development preparedness. Without the selecting representatives, Thai communities could not be well-organized to receive support. Furthermore, it was the initiative of the two fields' integration. The findings would also benefit future OL development in other fields.