PARADIGMATIC PERSPECTIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GUIDELINES FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO MANAGE CHILDREN WITH FETAL ALCHOL SYNDROME (FAS)

Goraseb Marcus*, Amukugo Hans Justus and Haoses Gorases Lischen

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to develop guidelines that support health care professionals in the management of FAS. The study of this nature requires paradigm perspective in order to guide the research approaches. The study was conducted in Four phases namely situational analysis, development of the conceptual framework, development of the guidelines and evaluations. In this study the researcher utilised (1) pragmatic assumption such as ontological, epistemological, axiological and methodological (2) the theoretical framework such as Practice theory of Dickoff (1968), Guide for development of the practice guidelines process (Kish, 2001) and (3) conceptual framework such Centre for Disease Control and Prevention outlines the management of FAS and Canadian guidelines for diagnosis of FAS were used to guide the researcher. Through four (4) phases of the study, the researcher identified the structured guidelines for health professionals comprised of seven (7) components. The components encompassed the structure, general knowledge for health professional on FAS, guidelines for the nurses, doctors, Psychologists, occupational therapists and speech therapists based on their Roles and responsibilities within their scope of practices as illustrated by the Health professional Council of Namibia.

Keywords: Paradigmatic Perspective, Development, Guidelines, Health Professionals, Manage, Children and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.