Texila International Journal of Public Health ISSN: 2520-3134 DOI: 10.21522/TIJPH.2013.10.04.Art010 Received: 13.08.2022 Accepted: 22.08.2022 Published on: 29.12.2022 *Corresponding Email: eniolaye99@yahoo.com Assessment of Utilization of Standing Order in the Management of Patients by Community Health Extension Workers in Ekiti State, Nigeria Rasheed Adeyemi Adepoju 1* , Abayomi Joseph Afe 2 1 PhD, Department of Public Health, Texila American University 2 Faculty, School of Public Health, Texila American University Consortium Abstract Engagement and training of community health extension workers was the strategy adopted by Nigeria to solve the problem of the dearth of skilled health workers at the primary health care level. This group of health workers were trained to use standing orders in the management of the patient at this level of care. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of utilization of standing order among community health extension workers. The research was cross-sectional in nature, and it used a self-applied structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed between March and April 2022. There were 265 respondents with age ranges between 23 and 58 years, and the majority (86.7%) were females. 98.1% possessed a copy of the standing order, and 88.5% and 9.9% kept their standing orders in health facilities and home, respectively. 62.3% used it regularly, 19.6% occasionally, 8.3% sometimes and 9.8% rarely used it. Reasons given for not using standing orders included- waste of time, patients who think I am not competent, and not containing new drugs. Regular utilization of standing order is low, and there is a need to educate the community extension workers on the importance of standing order at the primary health care level. Keywords: Standing order, Standardization, Utilization. Introduction Nigeria adopted the primary health care (PHC) system shortly after World Health Organization (WHO)/ United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) proclaimed Primary Health care System as the strategy to achieve health for all by year 2000 in Alma Ata in 1978 [1-4]. However, the adoption of the PHC came with the challenge of inadequately skilled health workers, especially in rural area as most skilled health workers were located in towns and cities to the detriment of the rural areas. The general insufficient health workers at the PHC level coupled with their uneven distribution was fundamental to the underperformance of PHC [5-8]. This was more so as health workers were reluctant to work at the primary healthcare level and tended to leave the primary health system and work in either the secondary or tertiary level of care [9]. Although some were deployed by various state governments through the hospital management board to the primary healthcare level, many lobbied themselves back to work at the secondary level of care. G.E. D. Omuta observed that attracting and retaining human resources for health at PHC level was a challenge in its implementation [7]. To solve the problem of inadequate skilled health workers at the PHC level, Nigeria then adapted the PHC system to suit her situation. Training and subsequent recruitment and introduction of community health extension workers into the health system in the country 1