Latest Resources

As part of a community-based package of maternal-neonatal health care, community health workers (CHWs) were trained to conduct household surveillance and to identify and refer sick newborns according to a clinical algorithm. Assessments of newborns by CHWs at home were linked to hospital-based assessments by physicians, and factors impacting referral, referral compliance and outcome were evaluated. [from author]

This article evaluates a pilot project to examine the feasibility of an innovative three-tiered network of community-based providers for delivery of maternal health interventions in the complex emergency setting of eastern Burma. [adapted from author]

As the primary link between the formal health care sector and the household level in South Africa, community health workers (CHWs) provide a critical perspective on barriers
that exist in rural health care delivery. The results of this study suggest that CHWs recognize the need for HIV/AIDS- and TB-related interventions but are unable to provide a response commensurate to this need. [from abstract]

Based on a small inquiry to a number of experienced mental health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa, the authors discuss what a community concept of mental health care might mean in Africa. [from author]

This brief shows that lay health workers can successfully engage significant numbers of consumers in increasing knowledge and reducing barriers to health care quality. It also discusses the fundamental issues of monitoring performance, obtaining recognition and developing an effective training model. [adapted from author]

This case study explores the process between donors and the government of moving pay for performance (P4P) from concept to design to implementation. It describes key areas of disagreement, and highlights the political tensions inherent in translating high-level interest in P4P into on-the-ground action. [from author]

The objective of this study was to assess the use determinants of skilled attendants at delivery in Mtwara rural district. The information obtained will help the district health management team to develop interventions to improve use of delivery care services and ultimately achieve the millennium goal to reduce the high rates of maternal mortality. [from author]

This review examines the use of various categories of community health workers as first line health workers in dealing, for example, with maternal and child health, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other issues throughout Africa. [from author]

A community-based project to increase community awareness about primary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) was implemented in an urban township of Cape Town. The aims of project were to utilise community health workers as change agents in their community and to develop a NCD model for an urban township community. [adapted from author]

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the quality of nursing service and care in three health districts in the KwaZulu Natal Province and to identify deficiencies which could be addressed by education and training for nurses. [adapted from abstract]

This report summarizes the key points and main conclusions of the Global Meeting of HRH Observatories including the potential benefits of HRH observatories: contribute to improving the information and evidence on HRH; inform, shape, validate and evaluate health workforce policies; make the links between health workforce, financing and outcomes. [adapated from summary]

The objective of this article is to argue that it is important for all stakeholders involved in rural recruitment and/or retention processes to consider their decisions and actions from an ethics perspective. [from abstract]

This film tells the story of Mirta Nubia Rosero, the only health worker in a remote village in south-western Colombia. After five decades of conflict, unexploded landmines and remnants of war lie hidden in the ground. [from publisher]

This short film shows the human face of the conflict affected health care. Entire villages have been destroyed and health-care centres looted in western Cote d’Ivoire, and mobile clinics provide the only health care for many villages in the area. [adapted from publisher]

Four decades of conflict in southern Colombia have made health care a rare commodity on the Rio Caguan, a remote tributary of the Amazon. In this video, Abdi Ismail explains his work taking mobile health clinics along the river to thousands of villagers who would otherwise be cut off from medical care. [from publisher]

This unique video footage, shot in Libya, starkly reveals the danger that health-care workers are exposed to as they treat the war-wounded close to the front line. [from publisher]

Violence, both actual and threatened, against the wounded and the sick, and against health-care facilities and personnel, is a crucial yet overlooked humanitarian issue. This brochure provides a brief overview of the stark reality of violence against health care. [adapted from publisher]

In this issue of the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, contributors outline the global challenges of delivering health care during conflict or other situations of violence and health care after natural disasters. [from publisher]

Thousands of wounded and sick people can be denied effective health care when hospitals are damaged by explosive weapons or forcibly entered by fighters, when ambulances are hijacked and when health-care personnel are threatened, kidnapped, injured or killed. This study is based on an analysis of reports collected over a two and- a-half year period describing 655 violent incidents affecting health care in 16 countries. [from summary]

The authors present data from a nationally representative all-India survey which enumerators physically verify the attendance of providers during unannounced visits, and found that nearly 40% of doctors and medical service providers are absent from work on a typical day. [from abstract]

This report discusses issues related to violence against health workers, patients and hospitals during armed conflict and the impact it has on health workers and the subsequent lack of available health care for those in need.

This manual was designed to be a resource and guide for exploring and planning quality improvement activities through partnership activities involving service providers and the community members that they are meant to serve. [from introduction]

This facilitation guide is designed as a training supplement to the Partnership Defined Quality manual (PDQ) to enable a facilitator to conduct a PDQ training that will enhance the participants’ understanding of when and how PDQ can be used to strengthen quality and access, and equip them with the skills necessary to adapt and implement PDQ in their programs. [from introduction]

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

Two studies were conducted to assess modes of male circumcision (MC) service delivery to support the scale-up of MC for HIV prevention in Kenya in the public sector. Both studies examined clinical outcomes of and client satisfaction for MC services provided through task shifting performed by nonphysician clinician and by trained itinerant clinical officers. [adapted from author]