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Recent studies involving physicians in training have shown that excessive work hours are associated with an increased rate of medical errors and adverse events. The problem of excessive work hours of physicians in training in El Salvador has political and economic roots that need to be addressed by politicians and public health policy makers. [adapted from author]

The ILO Sectoral Activities Department initiated an explorative research project on health worker mobility in Europe with focus on CEE countries. The purpose of the project was to explore and document current knowledge and information available in order to establish the current status, and identify both preliminary trends as well as information gaps and the need for further action.

This study aims to provide in-depth information on the migration of Filipino health workers and the repercussions this has on individual migrants, their families, their professions and the nation as a whole.

Because of its inherent complexities, the migration of health workers benefits from multidisciplinary research: solutions must be informed by a better understanding of the perspectives and underlying motivations of the many stakeholders. [author’s description]

During a labor shortage, employment-based benefits can be used to recruit and retain workers. This paper provides data on the availability of benefits to registered nurses (RNs), reports on how health care leaders are approaching the provision of employment-based benefits for nurses, and considers what nurses have to say in focus groups about benefits. Because of the ongoing nurse shortage, many employers are trying to enhance the benefits they offer to support recruitment and retention efforts.

The paper reports on a survey of recently arrived international nurses working in London, to assess their demographic profile, motivations, experiences and career plans. [from abstract]

This good practice guide is intended as a practical guide for trust boards and managers to help them to use temporary nursing staff effectively. The guide comprises a narrative of the salient points in the use and management of temporary nursing staff and includes a number of good practice checklists. It also provides case studies drawn from study visits and the work of the Department of Health’s National Agency Staffing Project. [from preface]

The purpose of this document is primarily to articulate and describe workforce supply. The aim of this is two-fold. First, it will help NHS Boards and other employers to understand where their future workforce is likely to come from and second, it provides a vehicle for setting medical, dental and nursing training numbers and helps inform education providers about future workforce needs and likely supply pathways. This is turn will impact the workforce itself, thus workforce planning and development is a continual cyclical process. [from introduction]

This study explored the distribution of public sector health workers [in Zimbabwe] to show how its pattern impacts on equity objectives in health care delivery. [from executive summary]

This report presents an overview of the policy implications of the international migration of health workers in Europe, based on case studies conducted in five countries – Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom – and draws on information from other WHO European Region countries, such as Israel and Latvia. [from introduction]

Experience has shown that governments have different kinds of HRH policies, strategies and plans even when they are within the overall context of national health policies and strategies. This document provides guidance on the process with proposals of content for three basic HRH documents: situation analysis, policy, and strategic plan. [from foreword]

The National Health Service published guidance to help protect staff who work alone and who do not have access to immediate support from colleagues or others. This guidance provides a template from which local employers can develop procedures and systems to protect lone workers. It contains information on how technology can be used to help provide a safer environment and to help nurses feel more confident about their personal safety. The RCN wanted to find out if the situation for nurses working in the community has improved since 2005, their perception of risk, their experiences of assault and abuse, whether technology has been provided, and how incidents are handled.

The nurse auxiliaries who work at the rural health centers (CESARs) of the Honduran Ministry of Health (MOH) are frequently the only source of reproductive health services in the communities they serve. In order to increase access to long-term family planning methods, the MOH and the Population Council’s INOPAL III Project conducted an operations research study from 1997 to 1998 to see if nurse auxiliaries could provide good quality IUD, Depo-Provera and vaginal cytology services without health risks for their clients.

The question guiding the paper is: “What are the key ingredients of a high-quality work environment in Canada’s health care sector and how can this goal be achieved?” Synthesizing insights from a variety of research streams, the paper identifies many ingredients needed to create a high-quality workplace. We take a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, which complements other research initiatives on health human resources. [from abstract]

In this discussion document, the Department of Health and Children identifies key development issues facing nursing and midwifery in the future. This is in order to establish a strong platform for the formulation of a strategic response to these issues. The document contains an insightful analysis of the challenges ahead and identifies a range of possible responses. [from preface]

This report summarizes the findings of AHRQ-funded and other research on the relationship of nurse staffing levels to adverse patient outcomes. This valuable information can be used by decisionmakers to make more informed choices in terms of adjusting nurse staffing levels and increasing nurse recruitment while optimizing quality of care and improving nurse satisfaction. [author’s description]

The purpose and objectives of this study are to examine the extent to which the manager’s span of control influences nurse, patient, and unit outcomes; and investigate which particular leadership style contributes to optimum nurse, patient, and unit outcomes under differing spans of control. [author’s description]

This document is an environmental policy scan of activity in three areas related to physicians, nurses and pharmacists: education and training initiatives; recruitment and retention and work place initiatives; and capacity to do national health human resource planning. [adapted from introduction]

The aim of the project was to evaluate the effect of the new rural allowance on the short-term career choices of health professionals in rural areas. A longitudinal cohort study design was used, before and after the introduction of the new allowance.

Nurses and midwives face the challenge of embracing new methods of care delivery which will provide a quality service that is truly people-centred. There is growing evidence of the need to link continuing professional development with organisational goals. The construction of career pathways in a healthcare system which is subject to radical and far-reaching change is an issue of growing importance to nurses and midwives. [from executive summary]

The NHS in Scotland is facing unprecedented change and is looking to transform existing models of health care. It also reinforces that improvements in healthcare will be achieved by new and more efficient ways of working, such as using the skills of nurses and allied health
professionals to take on more roles and give patients more choice. This document presents a generic framework to guide the development of new roles. It can be used to assist in the planning process to ensure that roles are needs led, meet governance requirements, are sustainable, as well as ensuring that the development is supported by the whole team thus ensuring its success.

Despite growing evidence in the US, little evidence has been available to evaluate whether internationally, hospitals in which nurses care for fewer patients have better outcomes in terms of patient survival and nurse retention. The objectives of this article are to examine the effects of hospital-wide nurse staffing levels (patient-to-nurse ratios) on patient mortality, failure to rescue (mortality risk for patients with complicated stays) and nurse job dissatisfaction, burnout and nurserated quality of care. [from abstract]

The purpose of this human resource for health (HRH) plan is to provide guidance for the staffing of the health services and the training of health service personnel to the year 2020. It analyzes main issues and dimensions in HRH and proposes strategies to meet the targets for the wellbeing of the population as defined in the vision 2020 for Rwanda The plan provides staffing targets for each of the major categories of health personnel.

By measuring the ability and actual practice of a sample of clinicians in Tanzania and examining the terms of employment for these clinicians, we show that both ability and motivation are important to quality.

This presentation discusses quality issues in private practice in developing countries, how the government can make licensing and regulation more effective, shifting the quality distribution and the use of accreditation. [adapted from author]

This presentation is from PSP-One’s GHC Expert Panel - Expanding Health Service Access, Quality, and Equity in Developing Countries: The Role of the Private Sector. It presents franchise models for delivering family planning and reproductive health services by the private sector.

The paper investigates the magnitude of migration of health professionals from Zimbabwe, the causes of such movements and the associated impacts on health care delivery. International migration of health professionals has led to staff shortages and the situation is worse in public compared to private health institutions. The quality of care given to patients has also declined. The research calls for the adoption of an integrated approach in solving the concerns of health professions. [abstract]

Traditional approaches to health human resource planning emphasize the effects of demographic change on the needs for health human resources. Planning requirements are largely based on the size and demographic mix of the population applied to simple population-provider or population-utilization ratios. We develop an extended analytical framework based on the production of heal care services and the multiple determinants of health human resource requirements. [from abstract]

This framework encompasses the healthcare workforce planning skills and competences required at both strategic and operational level, for all types of staff, including chief executives, directors, clinicians, service development managers, ward managers, workforce planners, and contributes to the building of capability in human resource management identified in the HR in the NHS Plan. [publisher’s description]

This review paper revisits questions regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of community health worker programmes. This review aims to assess the presently existing evidence. It constitutes a desktop review, which draws together and assesses the evidence as it can be found in the published and selected grey literature since the late 1970s. [from executive summary]