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Service Delivery-Based Training for Long-Acting Family Planning Methods: Pathfinder International in Ethiopia

Long-Acting Family Planning (LAFP) methods, provide uninterrupted protection to women for 3 to 12 years. But they must be inserted by trained providers in a safe clinical environment. With limited facilities and few providers, widespread implementation of LAFP in Ethiopia requires training of significant numbers of rural providers and developing properly equipped facilities for implant and IUCD insertions. This document describes a training program for family planning. [from author]

Healthcare Delivery Outside the Public Sector

Non-state providers (NSP) of healthcare, whether philanthropic or commercial, exist outside the public sector. Research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found evidence that NSPs provide the majority of primary contacts with the health system in all six countries, except possibly South Africa. [from author]

HIV/AIDS-Related Stigma, Fear, and Discriminitatory Practices among Healthcare Providers in Rwanda

The purposes of this study were to quantify stigma among Rwandan healthcare providers toward patients with HIV/AIDS; to assess healthcare provider fears and perceived risks for HIV while providing services to patients with HIV/AIDS; to quantify practices in hospitals and health centers and among health providers that discriminate against HIV-positive patients; and to evaluate the relationship between provider stigma, provider fears, and perceived risks with discrimination against HIV-positive patients in health facilities and among healthcare providers. [from summary]

Stigmatization and Discrimination of HIV-Positve People by Providers of General Medical Services in Ukraine

HPI conducted a survey in Ukraine to test indicators and questions regarding HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination at the facility/provider level. This research examined HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination by providers of general medical services in three regions in Ukraine. [from summary]

Analytical Report on Female Community Health Volunteers of Selected Districts of Nepal

Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) act as a bridge between the government and the community and serve as a frontline for local health resources. The objectives of this study of FCHV in Twenty Districts of Nepal was to see the existing condition of the FCHVs working in the communities of Nepal. The survey collected information on basic health services provided by FCHVs to the community in terms of the provision of specific commodities and the provision of information, communication, counseling, and other support to the rural community. [adapted from summary]

Ten Best Public and Private Sector Practices in Reproductive Health and Family Planning in the Europe and Eurasia Region

This brief synthesizes best practices in achieving reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) goals for the Europe and Eurasia region, and highlights the role of the private sector in meeting these goals. [from author]

Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health

This paper aims to increase the visibility of the issues facing the EU health workforce, to generate a clearer picture of the extent to which local and/or national health managers face the same challenges and to provide a better basis for considering what could be done at EU level to address these problems effectively, and in a manner which does not have a negative impact on health systems outside the EU. [from author]

Rethinking the Role of Community Health Workers

The shortage of health staff in developing countries has led to renewed interest in community-based health care workers. However, poor populations are increasingly accessing health services from a wide variety of providers operating as private or semi-private agents in unregulated markets. In this environment, is there a role for the community health worker? [from author]

Freedom to Do the Job: Barriers to Female Health Workers Practicing in Pakistan

Pakistan has introduced female health workers to make sure that women are able to receive the health care they need. However, these health workers face the same cultural constraints as other women in their society. Male colleagues and managers must be more supportive to female health workers, whilst formal structures should be provided for training and effective complaints procedures. [from author]

Contracting Out: the Case of Primary Care in South Africa

Contracts can be used to govern the relationship between the public and the private sectors where the private sector delivers services on behalf of the state. On occasion, this allows the state to offer services such as basic medical provision where public sector provision does not reach. Researchers examine the case of primary care in South Africa where such contracts are being utilised. [from author]

Identification of Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Rehabilitation Professionals in Ontario, Canada: Results from Expert Panels

Health human resource (HHR) strategies for Canadian rehabilitation professionals are lagging behind other professional groups such as physicians and nurses. The objectives of this study were: 1) to identify recruitment and retention strategies of rehabilitation professionals including occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech language pathologists from the literature; and 2) to investigate both the importance and feasibility of the identified strategies using expert panels amongst HHR and education experts. [from abstract]

HIV/AIDS Services through the Workplace: a Survey in Four Sub-Saharan African Countries

This study cuts across countries and quantifies the range of service provision types and mechanisms used by sub-Saharan companies that are diverse in terms of size, industry, and national origin. The study results systematically quantify which services are actually being offered, and how companies actually finance those services. The study also explores some motivators for offering workplace services and assesses why certain services and financing mechanisms are used predominantly by large companies. [from summary]

Managing the Multi-Generational Nursing Workforce: Managerial and Policy Implications

The nursing workforce in many countries today is more age diverse than ever before in history. Each generation has a distinct set of characteristics, values, beliefs and preferences. Understanding these differences and blending them in the workplace challenges even the most experienced and capable leader. This paper identifies the characteristics of each generation and explores several implications for the effective management of nursing services. [from foreword]

Diagnostics: Key Issues for Workforce Planning

The objective of this paper is to identify the future workforce challenges that will have a profound impact on the capacity to recruit and retain staff. In addition, issues that pertain to key staff groups for this care group will be identified. [from introduction]

TTR Plan and Measures to Protect Health Workers

This presentation covers the World Health Organization’s Treat, Train and Retain activities in terms of the key elements for health worker safety and protection. [adapted from author]

Supply, Distribution and Migration of Canadian Physicians 2011

This report utilizes statistical information derived from a central data source for resource planning regarding the supply, distribution and migration of physicians in Canada. [from introduction]

Staying the Course: Reducing Attrition in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiography Degree Courses

This report discusses attrition rates in diagnostic and therapeutic radiography degree courses, and includes recommendations on how these rates could be reduced. [from introduction]

Long-term Conditions: Key Issues for Workforce Planning

The objective of this report is to identify future workforce challenges that will have a profound impact on the capacity to recruit and retain staff. In addition, issues that pertain to key staff groups for this care group will be identified. [from introduction]

Orthopedics: Key Issues for Workforce Planning

The objective of this paper is to identify the future workforce challenges that will have a profound impact on the capacity to recruit and retain staff. In addition, issues that pertain to key staff groups for this care group will be identified. [from introduction]

Need for National Medical Licensing Examination in Saudi Arabia

Medical education in Saudi Arabia is facing multiple challenges, including the rapid increase in the number of medical schools over a short period of time, the influx of foreign medical graduates to work in Saudi Arabia, the award of scholarships to hundreds of students to study medicine in various countries, and the absence of published national guidelines for minimal acceptable competencies of a medical graduate. We are arguing for the need for a Saudi national medical licensing examination that tests the basic science and clinical knowledge and the clinical skills and attitudes.

New Face for Private Providers in Developing Countries: What Implications for Public Health?

The use of private health care providers in low- and middle-income countries is widespread and is the subject of considerable debate. We review here a new model of private primary care provision emerging in South Africa, in which commercial companies provide standardized primary care services at relatively low cost. [from abstract]

Effects of Job Rotation and Role Stress among Nurses on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

The motivation for this study was to investigate how role stress among nurses could affect their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and whether the job rotation system might encourage nurses to understand, relate to and share the vision of the organization, consequently increasing their job satisfaction and stimulating them to willingly remain in their jobs and commit themselves to the organization. [from abstract]

Level and Determinants of Incentives for Village Midwives in Indonesia

Since the early 1990s Indonesia has attempted to increase the level of skilled attendance at birth by placing rural midwives in every village in an effort to reduce persistently high levels of maternal mortality. Yet evidence suggests that there remains insufficient incentive to ensure an equal distribution across areas while the poor in all areas continue to access skilled attendance much less than those in richer groups.

Persistence and Challenges of Homebirths: Perspectives of Traditional Birth Attendants in Urban Kenya

Through an analysis of focus group discussion data, we examine Kenyan traditional birth attendants’ accounts of the persistence of homebirths and the key challenges they present. [from abstract]

Nursing Brain Drain from India

In response to recent findings regarding migration of health workers out of Africa, we provide data from a survey of Indian nurses suggesting that up to one fifth of the nursing labour force may be lost to wealthier countries through circular migration. [abstract]

Human Resources for Health at the District Level in Indonesia: the Smoke and Mirrors of Decentralization

The objective of this article is to determine the stock of human resources for health in 15 districts, their service status and primary place of work. It also assesses the effect of decentralization on management of human resources and the implications for the future. [from abstract]

China's Barefoot Doctor: Past, Present and Future

This document discusses China’s long struggle with rural coverage for health care through the barefoot doctors program, which was introduced as a national policy focused on quickly training paramedics to meet rural needs. [adapted from author]

Costs of Eliminating Critical Shortages in Human Resources for Health

This presentation was part of the WHO-OECD Hosted Dialogue on migration and other
health workforce issues in a global economy. It discusses the cost of providing the minimum number of health workers for developing countries in terms of increasing the production of health workers, taking into account the diversity and competencies of health workers, and augmenting financial rewards and improving the working environment. [adapted from author]

What about the Health Workers? Improving the Work Climate at Rural Facilities in Kenya

In health facilities across Kenya, many workers are struggling to do their jobs in less-than-ideal conditions. Work climate issues such as poor working environments, unfriendly colleagues, disorganized facility functions and ineffective supervision have been hindering workers’ performance and productivity and contributing to low retention. [from author]

Improving Efficiency: Assessing Efficiency in Service Delivery

In recent years, some efforts have been made at developing systems for assessing performance and generating information to assist in the distribution of resources in the health sector. However, most of these measurements have focused on the implementation of services and the intermediate steps that determine how inputs are transformed into outputs. This document uses available information to estimate the cost of providing service and workload analysis in order to provide a picture of efficiency in the delivery of services. [from introduction]