Tools & Guides
Family Planning and HIV Services Toolkit
This toolkit is your one-stop source for evidence-based knowledge and promising practices to support the successful integration of family planning (FP) and HIV services. It summarizes the latest evidence and provides links to guidelines and tools to help you plan, manage, deliver, evaluate, and support integrated services. [adapted from publisher]
- 50 reads
Packages of Interventions for Family Planning, Safe Abortion Care, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
This document describes the key effective interventions organized in packages across the continuum of care through pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, newborn care and care of the child. The packages are defined for community and/or facility levels in developing countries and provide guidance on the essential components needed to assure adequacy and quality of care. [from publisher]
- 115 reads
Models and Tools for Health Workforce Planning and Projections
The objective of this paper is to take stock of the available methods and tools for health workforce planning and projections, and to describe the processes and resources needed to undertake such an exercise. [from introduction]
- 314 reads
Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention: Global Policy Recommendations
After a year-long consultative effort, this document proposes sixteen evidence-based recommendations on how to improve the recruitment and retention of health workers in underserved areas. It also offers a guide for policy makers to choose the most appropriate interventions, and to implement, monitor and evaluate their impact over time. [from publisher]
- 173 reads
Data Mapping Template on Human Resources for Health
This tool is to be used as a starting point for the collation, analysis and synthesis of data and evidence on human resources for health (HRH), as well as for monitoring the strengths and limitations of the underlying information systems. It has been developed as part of a series of efforts to enhance country capacities to generate, analyse and use data to assess health workforce performance and track progress towards their HRH-related goals. [from publisher]
- 298 reads
Assessing Financing, Education, Management and Policy Context for Strategic Planning of Human Resources for Health
This document contains a method for assessing the financial, educational and management systems and policy context, essential for strategic planning and policy development for human resources for health. This tool has been developed as an evidence-based comprehensive diagnostic aid to inform policy-making in low and middle income countries in regard to human resources for health. [from introduction]
- 196 reads
Assessment of Human Resources for Health: Suvey Instruments and Guide to Administration
This document is intended to help countries to identify appropriate human resource interventions, by making it possible to see how the current health workforce is distributed within and between public and private sectors, areas of specialization and level of care. It is proposed that a common approach be used to collect data in a number of areas, including workforce demographics and planning, staffing distribution, remuneration of health workers and skill mix. [from author]
- 182 reads
Competencies Assessment Tool 2010
This tool is an instrument for healthcare executives to use in assessing their expertise in critical areas of healthcare management. [adapted from author]
- 478 reads
Competency-to-Curriculum Toolkit
This toolkit has been developed to facilitate the development of a public health workforce competent to meet its assigned mission. One part of that process is the use of competency-based curricula in public health training or education and how to determine the right activities for moving from a competency set to developing a curriculum. [adapted from author]
- 270 reads
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals
The core competencies are a set of skills desirable for the broad practice of public health. They reflect the characteristics that staff of public health organizations may want to possess as they work to protect and promote health in the community. The competencies are designed to serve as a starting point for academic and practice organizations to understand, assess, and meet education, training and workforce needs. [adapted from introduction]
- 236 reads
Health Systems in Action: An eHandbook for Leaders and Managers
This handbook brings together effective practices in leadership, management, and governance. It includes effective practices in key management systems that all work together to improve health. [from preface]
- 417 reads
Calculating Human Resource Need
Who will you need, when will you need them, can you afford them? This toolkit, recently developed for use in Liberia, can substantially assist the process. [from author]
- 408 reads
Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice
At a time when the world is facing a shortage of health workers, policymakers are looking for innovative strategies that can help them develop policy and programmes to bolster the global health workforce. This document highlights the current status of interprofessional collaboration around the world, identifies the mechanisms that shape successful collaborative teamwork and outlines a series of action items that policymakers can apply within their local health system.
- 314 reads
What Countries Can Do Now: Twenty-Nine Actions to Scale-Up and Improve the Health Workforce
This document explains seven financing and economic issues that matter for health workforce scale-up and financing. It then states twenty-nine actions that policy-makers could take right away to address the issues, independent of any long-term HRH interventions in progress. [from introduction]
- 513 reads
Strategies to Advance 70% Full-Time Nurse Employment Toolkit
This toolkit was designed for nurse employers across the province of Ontario to use as a resource in working toward the 70% full-time nurse commitment. It is a practical guide to assist Nurse Managers and Human Resource Staff in identifying staffing needs and creating organization-specific strategies to increase full-time employment for nurses. [from author]
- 569 reads
Planning the Development of Human Resources for Health for Implementation of the Stop TB Strategy: a Handbook
This handbook provides background information on the current workforce situation in the health sector and summarizes the issues and challenges; introduces the HRH Action Framework and the Stop TB (tuberculosis) Strategy; applies the Framework to human resource development (HRD) for comprehensive TB control; describes how to prepare a strategic plan for HRD in support of comprehensive TB control; and gives a step-by-step guide on how to develop HRD plans based on the structures and processes described. [adapted from introduction]
- 585 reads
WISN Toolkit: Toolkit for Implementing Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) to Improve Health Workforce Planning and Management in Decentralized Health Systems
The Toolkit is adapted from the WHO WISN Manual. WISN has traditionally been in a top down approach with limited success, particularly when applying it within the context of a decentralized government system. It was recognized that a more innovative approach was required to implement the methodology successfully at decentralized levels. [from author]
- 1319 reads
Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluation of Human Resources for Health with Special Applications for Low and Middle Income Countries
This handbook offers health managers, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive, standardized and user-friendly reference for monitoring and evaluating human resources for health. It brings together an analytical framework with strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked. [from preface]
- 1196 reads
Guidelines on Planning Human Resources for Nursing
The purpose of these guidelines is to assist nurse leaders in strengthening the management of their professional workforce and, through this, to assist in strengthening health care delivery and strategies for improving health. [from author]
- 838 reads
Paying for Performance in Health: Guide to Developing the Blueprint
Pay for performance (P4P) is an innovative approach that explicitly links financial investment in health to health results. However, the mechanics of its implementation need to be planned very carefully to elicit the desired behavior change in a given country. This guide offers the reader a systematic framework to document and structure a P4P initiative. [adapted from foreword]
- 618 reads
Global Opportunities Tool
The GO Tool is a comprehensive resource connecting health professions students to domestic and international reproductive health training opportunities. [from author]
- 528 reads
Curricula Organizer for Reproductive Health Education (CORE)
CORE is an open access, cutting edge tool for building presentations on the full spectrum of reproductive health topics. It has sample slides for easy insertion into a presentation that users can download as well as fact sheets, activities, studies and other resources. [adapted from publisher]
- 687 reads
Guidance for Nurse Prescription and Management of Antiretroviral Therapy
In resource-limited settings, serious healthcare worker shortages that contribute to weak health systems exist alongside the drive to scale up ART and other HIV services to reach those in need. The global health community thus needs to reassess current delivery models and pilot new ones that could expand needed healthcare and be more cost effective, while preserving the quality of services. This book provides a roadmap for conceptualizing and initiating the expansion of the nursing scope of practice to include ART prescription and management. [adapted from author]
- 601 reads
Equity-Oriented Toolkit for Health Technology Assessment and Knowledge Translation: Application to Scaling Up of Training and Education for Health Workers
This paper illustrates how decision-makers can use evidence and tools from an equity-oriented toolkit to scale up training and education of health workers. [adapted from abstract]
- 539 reads
Quantitative Tool for Workforce Planning in Healthcare: Example Simulations
This report summarizes a series of quantitative models developed to assist in workforce planning and using example simulation projections for the demand and supply of healthcare workers in Ireland. [adapted from executive summary]
- 5972 reads
Guidelines
This presentation defines the components of health worker guidelines, explores the impact on maximizing access and quality, and describes the best practices in creating health worker guidelines. [adapted from author]
- 612 reads
Health Service Planning and Policy-Making: a Toolkit for Nurses and Midwives
The purpose of this toolkit, consisting of 7 booklets, is to provide nurses and midwives with tools to effectively participate in and influence health care planning and policy-making. This tool-kit has been designed for use by any nurse or midwife who has an interest in advocating for change in their work environment. [from publisher]
- 16271 reads
WHO Guidelines for Implementing Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery Services in the African Region 2007-2017
The regional guidelines for implementing the SDNM in the African Region are to accelerate action at country level. The guidelines also provide both a framework for WHO action to support countries in improving the quality of nursing and midwifery services, and a guide for action at national and local levels. Possible priority actions have been proposed to countries to facilitate strengthening of nursing and midwifery services at national and local levels. [from foreword]
- 818 reads
Safer Place Self-Audit Tool: Combating Violence Against Social Care Staff
This self-audit tool can be used at any management level and is designed to help employers make a quick judgement about whether an organization’s framework for management and practice minimizes the potential for workers to be subject to violence and abuse. The tool also enables a supportive response if incidents occur. [adapted from description]
- 687 reads
National Framework to Support Local Workforce Strategy Development: a Guide for HR Directors in the NHS and Social Care
This document suggests a framework within which governing bodies and boards — supported by HR directors and managers across health and social care — can develop local workforce strategies. [adapted from introduction]
- 606 reads

