Documents & Reports

This paper describes strategies for improving the performance of health care workers. Many factors interact to affect the quality of health care. The structure of the health care system, educational opportunities for health practitioners, the administrative system, the pace of change, economic conditions and the technology available may influence the ability of the existing workforce to acquire new skills and implement them in practice. Thus, a comprehensive strategy is needed if the quality of the overall system is to improve, including the development of indicators to measure progress. [author’s description]

An NSDP survey shows strong support for the use of skilled birth attendants and willingness to pay for their services. Widespread use of SBAs holds much promise in helping to meet the UN Millennium Development goal of reducing the maternal mortality rate to around 140 by 2015. The survey results, which also indicate some barriers to SBA use, have enabled the design of an appropriate pilot intervention. [from introduction]

The NGOs that comprise the USAID-funded NGO Service Delivery Program must control costs in order to improve their cost recovery rates. Costs associatied with high staff turnover are an important variable operating expense. An NSDP study of staff turnover has produced interesting findings contributing to new staff retention strategies. [introduction]

The paper responds to a number of questions around what needs to be done to scale up towards universal access to essential health services, including comprehensive HIV services, in developing countries. The submission argues for an emphasis on the three health MDG’s - on HIV/AIDS, on child health and maternal health

NGOs that provide basic health care to the poor must become less dependent on donor support by diversifying their funding. The NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP), a USAID-funded health care program in Bangladesh, is working with NGOs to find corporate sponsorship. [publisher’s description]

This report of a two-day technical consultation summarizes challenges, lessons learned from promising projects, knowledge and practice gaps, and recommendations for future practice. It suggests guidelines for community involvement in youth reproductive health and HIV prevention at all stages of a project cycle. [publisher’s description]

This study seeks to describe the existing systems for measuring and monitoring staff performance in the clinical setting and covered public and para-statal hospitals in Ghana. [author’s description]

This report identifies innovative approaches countries are using to address the shortages of health care workers and describes efforts to achieve long-term sustainability. [author’s description]

Based on a review of the literature and country examples, the brief describes why task shifting is important and highlights some key steps in planning for, developing and supporting cadres involved in task shifting. [author’s description]

The purpose of this technical brief is to offer best practices and lessons learned from a combination of key themes in current literature and practice regarding the benefits of collaborative ventures. The brief provides information on the benefits of participating in a collaborative venture, the challenges and common pitfalls that can occur and what it takes to collaborate productively and to sustain the collaboration. [adapted from author]

This article addresses some human resource problems amongst which migration of human capital to resourceful settings is detailed as a priority problem. Several factors have contributed to dissatisfaction and human resources, especially those with higher skills and qualifications, migrating towards more resourceful settings, both overseas and within the country. [from abstract]

This document contains a country analysis on HRH covering situations, trends, and priority problems including issues in undifferentiated strategies of health sector development for remote areas and the shortage and maldistribution of well trained nurses and community nurses. It also includes a discussion on HRH development, strategies and policies in Lao PDR. [adapted from author]

This paper is mainly intended to show the demographic implications for Bangladesh’s Health-human resources production in the next two decades as absolute increase in Population is still too high that the economy can cope with. [author’s description]

The African Church Health Associations’ Human Resources for Health Mini-Forum was held to re-energize the CHA’s human resources working group. The objectives of the forum were to: expand the HRH knowledge base; help develop a critical mass of faith-based HRH advocates; clarify the “Terms of Reference” for an HRH working group and plan for sustainability and next steps; and to generate action plans for HRH practices and identify technical assistance needs. [adapted from author]

This communication will serve to outline the European Union’s and the European Commission’s coherent and coordinated response to the planned decade of action on human resources proposed by the 57th World Health Assembly (Resolution WHA 57.19), which begins in 2006. [from introduction]

This report presents the findings of an independent Technical Review that focused on the promotion of Public Private Partnership for equitable provision of quality health services in Tanzania. [author’s description]

This brief note focuses on the management of sub-national [health] systems and services. It provides a simple framework for analysing current mangerial challenges; it summarises what is known about effective approaches to improve management and what returns from investing in these can be expected, and it outlines some directions for action by the international community. [from author]

The purpose of this paper is to begin to develop consensus about key challenges and effective strategies in working with the non-state sector to achieve public health goals. [Author’s description]

This report, Action against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific, is intended to serve as a technical report for discussion at the ILO Regional Tripartite Seminar on Action against Sexual Harassment at Work, to be held in Penang, Malaysia from 2 to 4 October, 2001.

The loss of skilled personnel to rich countries is a major concern for many developing countries today. However, large numbers of people from developing countries are also being trained overseas and, of those trained at home, many cannot be absorbed productively into their economies of origin. At the same time, the association between the presence or absence of health personnel and the health status of a population is seen as simplistic and a range of other factors are addressed. This Briefing examines the case for a two-tiered health training system, one for global markets and the other for local markets.

The following guidelines have been developed by a working group of practitioners drawn from clinics, hospitals, congregations and communities. They are intended for use by practitioners from the congregation, community, clinic, and other partners in local responses which are incorporating ART. [Description from preface]

Health systems in industrialized countries are having success with new approaches for evaluating and improving care delivered by clinicians in ambulatory care settings. Described herein is a program which awards recognition to individual physicians or physician groups who deliver high-quality, cost-effective care. [from author’s description]

A brief description of why strengthening human resources informations systems (HRIS) is important, what constitutes an HRIS, and what The Capacity Project has accomplished and learned in this area.

Evidence Update is a two-page summary of a Cochrane Review of healthcare interventions relevant to people in low-income and middle income-countries. This issue reviews whether lay health workers improve health care delivery and health care outcomes.

The relationship between poor conditions of employment and work of nursing personnel and shortages is complex. Consequences may include: increased patient morbidity and mortality; greater levels of violence in the workplace; reduced occupational safety and health for remaining personnel; high levels of job dissatisfaction with intention to quit; and unsustainable patterns of health worker migration from developing countries.The Nursing Personnel Convention articulates the kinds of provisions needed to address many of the identified problems. It must be implemented in the greatest number of countries in order to set decent standards of work, boost the professional and political profile of nursing personnel, and provide incentive for nursing personnel to remain in their jobs.

There are substantial differences in the working lives of women and men and this affects their occupational safety and health (OSH). The Community strategy on health and safety at work has mainstreaming, or integrating, gender into occupational safety and health activities as an objective. To support this, the Agency has produced a report examining gender differences in workplace injury and illness, gaps in knowledge and the implications for improving risk prevention. This factsheet summarizes the main findings. [adapted from publisher’s description]

A roundtable discussion of the following questions: 1) Why attempt HRH planning? 2) What should be the objectives for HRH planning? 3) Why has HRH planning had limited success in the past? 4) Will these reasons for limited success continue in the future? 5) Even if HRH planning might be useful, why wouldn’t market forces be a better guide to policy? 6) If both HRH planning and market forces have their use, when should we choose one and when the other? [From author]

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) commissioned this report into the experiences of internationally recruited nurses (IRNs) working in the UK. The study explores the motivations and experiences of IRNs in order to understand why overseas nurses come to work in the UK, what experiences they undergo and whether they plan to stay in the UK, return to their countries of origin or go to another country to work after a short period. [from executive summary]

With globalisation trends, the emigration of highly skilled persons from developing countries has significantly increased. The implication of this movement of skilled labour (termed as “the brain drain”) has emerged as an important issue of international debate in recent years. The objective of the paper is to look at different possible policy responses which can minimize its adverse effects, and which can promote the sharing of gains between source and host countries. The paper focuses on three policy approaches: retention, return and circulation of skills. It argues that the best strategy to deal with the problem of loss of skilled labour is one based on the concept of circulation of skills, which yields mutual benefits for both sending and host countries.

This publication provides an overview of some of the key challenges for policy-makers in addressing the linkages between migration, health and human rights.The first section explains why we are addressing the issue of migration and health and what is meant by doing this through a human rights framework. It then explores some of the terminology used. The second section links the reasons why people migrate with the health and human rights implications of moving on the populations left behind. The third section considers the health implications for those on the move both in the context of public health as well as in relation to the health of the individual.