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Traditional Healers and Nurses: a Qualitative Study on Their Role on Sexually Transmitted Infections Including HIV and AIDS in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

This study investigated the role of traditional healers in sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS as well as a collaboration between the traditional and biomedical health care systems as seen by nurses and traditional healers. Qualitative analyses are presented on themes including attitude and respect; collaboration between traditional healers and nurses; control and regulation of traditional health practices; and the training needs of healers and nurses. [adapted from abstract]

Participation of Traditional Birth Attendants in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Services in Two Rural Districts in Zimbabwe: a Feasibility Study

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV is among the key HIV prevention strategies in Zimbabwe. The main objective of this study was to evaluate acceptability and feasibility of reinforcing the role of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in family and child health services through their participation in PMTCT programmes in Zimbabwe. [from abstract]

Taking Critical Services to the Home: Scaling-Up Home-based Maternal and Postnatal Care, Including Family Planning, through Community Midwifery in Kenya

Increasing access to safe delivery and family planning services within rural communities increases the opportunities for women to have positive outcomes for their pregnancies as well as to plan and achieve their desired family size. This paper examines the scaling up of a community-based model in Kenya that enabled women to give birth safely at home or to be referred to a hospital when attended by a self-employed skilled midwife living in the community. [adapted from summary]

Healthcare Workers' Attitudes to Working During Pandemic Influenza: a Qualitative Study

The UK healthcare system's ability to cope during an influenza pandemic will largely depend on the number of healthcare workers (HCWs) who are able and willing to work through the crisis. This paper includes the results of a qualitative study exploring the views of UK HCWs on working during an influenza pandemic in order to identify factors that might influence their willingness and ability to work. [from abstract]

Use of Our Existing Eye Care Human Resources: Assessment of the Productivity of Cataract Surgeons Trained in Eastern Africa

This article measured the productivity of cataract surgeons in Africa and assesses the factors that predict high productivity among surgeons in general. [adapted from abstract]

Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention: Background Paper

This paper serves as background documentation for the first expert meeting for developing the evidence-based recommendations for increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention, to be held in Geneva on 2-4 February 2009. It is intended to provide an overview of the issues, challenges and potential solutions to the problem of inequitable access to health workers in remote and rural areas. [from introduction}

Measuring and Managing the Work Environment of the Mid-Level Provider: the Neglected Human Resource

Our study aimed to explore a neglected but crucial aspect of human resources for health in Africa: the provision of a work environment that will promote motivation and performance of mid-level providers. This paper explores the work environment of mid-level providers in Malawi, and contributes to the validation of an instrument to measure the work environment of mid-level providers in low income countries. [from abstract]

Work Satisfaction of Professional Nurses in South Africa: a Comparative Analysis of the Public and Private Sectors

Work satisfaction of nurses is important, as there is sufficient empirical evidence to show that it tends to affect individual, organizational and greater health and social outcomes. This paper presents a national study that compares and contrasts satisfaction levels of nurses in both public and private sectors. [from abstract]

Health Worker Retention and the Kampala Declaration

This presentation outlines the work on retention, incentives and positive practice environments as it relates to the Kampala Declaration.

Evaluating and Designing Policy Options for Rural Retention: Some Insights from Niger

This presentation discusses an ineffective incentives effort to retain rural health workers and suggestions for more useful interventions.

Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE): a Methodology for Eliciting Health Workers' Preferences

This presentation outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the DCE, an increasingly popular methodology for eliciting health worker preferences regarding rural jobs. [adapted from author]

Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention

This presentation reviews the current state of health worker retention in rural areas, discusses interventions aimed at addressing the problem and describes the challenges and directions for solving it.

WHO Programme on Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention

This presentation outlines the World Health Organization’s (WHO) efforts to scale up health care delivery in rural areas through health care worker retention programs.

Restructuring the Additional Duty Hours Allowance: Job Descriptions for Allied Health Staff - Part I

This document details the specific hiring criteria for allied health staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health. Primary areas of interest to HRH facilitators include positions in the fields of optometry, dentistry, oral health and laboratory staff.

Restructuring the Additional Duty Hours Allowance: Job Descriptions for Allied Health Staff - Part II

This document details the specific hiring criteria for allied health staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health. Primary areas of interest to HRH facilitators include positions in the fields of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and disease control.

Restructuring the Additional Duty Hours Allowance: Job Descriptions for Administrative and Support Staff

This document details the specific hiring criteria for administrative and support staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

Globalization, Migration and Brain Drain: a Reality Check

This paper discusses the pros and cons of health worker migration, describing management methods that are beneficial for both sending and receiving countries. [adapted from abstract]

Challenges of Managing Government-Seconded Health Workers in Private Not-for-Profit Health Facilities of Kibaale District, Uganda

This article describes issues raised by the deployment of civil servants through the public-private partnership for health to work in private-not-for-profit health facilities in Kibaale region of Uganda. [adapted from abstract]

Is it (Not) High Time to Introduce Performance-Based Pay in Uganda's Health System?

This article describes the issues facing Uganda’s health system and presents arguments for and against instituting a performance-based pay system.

Restructuring the Additional Duty Hours Allowance: Job Descriptions for Directors

This document details the specific hiring criteria for directors as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

Restructuring the Additional Duty Hours Allowance: Job Descriptions for Clinical, Nursing & Midwifery and Pharmacy Staff

This document details the specific hiring criteria for clinical, nursing & midwifery and pharmacy staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

Job Descriptions for Blood Donor Organizers

This document details the specific hiring criteria for blood donor organizers as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

Regulated Nurses: Trends, 2003 to 2007

This report presents five-year workforce trends across Canada, across regulated nursing professions and across a variety of demographic, education, mobility and employment characteristics, in order to inform health human resource planning. [from executive summary]

Workforce Trends of Pharmacists for Selected Provinces and Territories in Canada

The Pharmacist Database is a primary source of data on the size of the pharmacist workforce in Canada and contains information that is key to effective human resource planning in the health care sector. This report contains information on the supply, demographics, geographic distribution, education and employment of pharmacists in Canada. [adapted from introduction]

Key Characteristics of Positive Practice Environments for Health Care Professionals

This document presents a checklist of key characteristics of quality workplaces for health care professionals. It is intended for use by employers, professional organizations, regulatory bodies, government agencies as well as health sector professionals. It is designed as a reference tool to enable these groups to assess the quality of their practice environment, identify any deficiencies and develop strategies to address priority gaps. [adapted from introduction]

Global Action for Health System Strengthening: Policy Recommendations to the G8

This report is a follow-up to the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in Japan in July, 2008. It was prepared by government officials in health and foreign policy from the G8 countries, with leadership from Japan, and covered a number of critical issues in global health. The report reflected growing policy attention to health system strengthening by Japan and the global health community more broadly. [from introduction]

The chapter containing on "Opportunities for Overcoming the Health Workforce Crisis" begins on page 27.

Assessment of the Training of the First Intake of Health Extension Workers

Ethiopia’s poor health status is due primarily to communicable diseases, poor nutrition, and lack of access to health services in general and for most of the rural, nomadic pastoralist and fringe areas in particular. In response, the government has launched a Health Extension Program for which training of Health Extension Workers has been started. This study assesses the first year’s training program in terms of its inputs, processes and output. [from abstract]

Remuneration of General Practitioners and Specialists in 14 OECD Countries: What are the Factors Influencing Variations across Countries?

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the remuneration of doctors in 14 OECD countries for which reasonably comparable data were available in OECD Health Data 2007 (Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States).

Accuracy of the Jamaican National Physician Register: a Study of the Status of Physicians Registered and Their Countries of Training

Clinical research activities have suggested that the current records of physicians registered to practice in Jamaica may not be accurate. Our objective was to determine whether the Medical Council of Jamaica (MCJ) accurately records and reports the identities, number and specialty designation of physicians in Jamaica. An additional aim was to determine the countries in which these physicians were trained. [from abstract]

Using Non-State Providers to Meet Public Health Goals in Fragile States: Can They Fill the Gap?

This presentation was from the “Health Service Delivery in Fragile States for US$ 5 perperson per year: Myth or Reality?” conference. It discusses the limited public sector capacity to deliver priority services in fragile states and the opportunities and challenges of using non-state providers to increase coverage. [adapted from author]