Latest Resources

These guidelines target all health workers at the different levels of the health care delivery system and apply to both the formal and informal workplaces within the health sector. This document covers the basic principles that are required to ensure workplace safety and health including hazard identification, risk management, prevention and management of exposures and incidents. [from foreword]

The paper seeks to analyze the import of distance education for promotion of proficiency skills in the health sector and review ongoing professional development programmes for health workers in Ghana, and come out with strategies to offer training avenues leading to the professional growth of the individuals and economic growth of the country. [from abstract]

This toolkit is an interactive, client-friendly approach for improving counseling on family planning and prevention, detection, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. It includes a training of trainers guide that supervisors and others can use to train health care facility directors and service providers on how to use the BCS+ for counseling family planning clients. [from publisher]

This document provides individual country profiles detailing basic mental health resources around the world. Section I describes the methodology used, as well as the global and regional analyses, while Section II provides short descriptive profiles for each country. [adapted from introduction]

This brief discusses the important role of reproductive health providers in reducing the incidence of new HIV infections over the coming years through an increased focus on outreach to young people and men. [adapted from introduction]

This report evaluates the educational effects of a clinically integrated e-learning course for teaching basic evidence-based medicine among postgraduates compared to a traditional lecture-based course of equivalent content. [adapted from abstract]

This article discusses the agenda for monitoring and improving the quality of health care through the use of clinical governance in National Health Service organizations in the UK. [adapted from introduction]

Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is a cornerstone for successful implementation of prevention, care and support services among HIV negative and positive individuals. VCT is also perceived to be an effective strategy in risk reduction among sexually active young people. This study aimed to assess the acceptability of VCT and its actual uptake among young health care professional students. [adapted from abstract]

This paper evaluates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of alternative training strategies for increasing access to emergency obstetric care in Burkina Faso. [adapted from abstract]

An estimated four million deaths occur annually among children in the neonatal period. Current evidence-based interventions could prevent a large proportion of these deaths; however, neonatal health care workers need to have knowledge regarding such practices before being able to put them into action. This survey assesses the knowledge of primary health care practitioners regarding basic, evidence-based procedures in neonatal care in a Vietnamese province and investigates whether differences in level of knowledge were linked to certain characteristics of community health centers.

The provision of eye care in the developing world has been constrained by the limited number of trained personnel and by professional cultures. This paper presents a highly flexible competencies-based multiple entry and exit training system that matches and adapts training to the prevailing population and service needs and demands, while lifting overall standards over time and highlighting the areas of potential benefit. [from abstract]

This report summarizes elements of the primary health strategy and the health sector goals established by the Malawi Ministry of Health.

This presentation was part of the Mobility, Training and Supply of Health Workers Worshop. It discusses the state of nurse training and mobility and the policy considerations in Bangladesh.

Before the HRH situation could be addressed, it had to be measured. While it was long apparent that HRH availability, quality, and management needed to be improved, data to determine staffing needs and guide staff training and allocation were lacking. [from author]

The study used a literature review and field research to obtain data on strategies for the retention of health workers in various institutions in Kenya.

This issue explores the Management Sciences for Health’s Virtual Leadership Development Program, which was designed to strengthen the leadership capacity of health teams to produce organizational results. [adapted from author]

Improving health workers’ performance is vital for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In the literature on human resource management interventions to improve health workers’ performance in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), hardly any attention has been paid to the question how HRM interventions might bring about outcomes and in which contexts. Our aim was to explore if realist review of published primary research provides better insight into the functioning of interventions in LMIC. [abstract]

This issue of Voices discusses the impact of the Emergency Hiring Plan developed in combination with the Capacity Project and the Kenyan Ministry of Health to increase the number of qualified professionals working in Kenya’s public health facilities. [adapted from author]

With the scarcity of African health professionals, volunteers are earmarked for an increased role in HIV/AIDS management, with a growing number of projects relying on grassroots community members to provide home nursing care to those with AIDS - as part of the wider task-shifting agenda. Yet little is known about how best to facilitate such involvement. This paper reports on community perceptions of a 3-year project which sought to train and support volunteer health workers in a rural community in South Africa. [from abstract]

This study highlights the experiences and challenges associated with decentralisation and the partial re-centralisation in relation to the recruitment and distribution of health workers. [from abstract]

This presentation covers the proces of developing a regional guideline for country strategic planning, results from a situational analysis, a draft regional guideline and the next steps. [adapted from author]

This document is an early version of procedures for use by national health and statistics constituencies in planning and carrying out the design of strategies and operational plans for strengthening their national health information systems. [from summary]

This report summarizes the key problems in the health sector and their implications on human resources for health and financing of the health sector; discusses the issues on human resources for health; explores options for improving the production, deployment, retention and management of these workers; analyzes the current state of financing in the health sector; explores options for the financing of essential health services and non-EHP services; and summarizes the way forward. [adapted from introduction]

This issue of Voices describes the Capacity Project’s work on the health management information system (HMIS) in Uganda including an assessment of the HMIS performance and support in setting standards for using it effectively.

The availability and distribution of an appropriate eye care workforce are fundamental to reaching the goals of “VISION 2020: The right to sight”, the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness. The objectives of the study were to determine the availability and distribution of human resources for eye care delivery in Enugu Urban, south-eastern Nigeria. [from abstract]