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Fostering Public-Private Partnerships to Improve Access to Family Planning in Rwanda

Through public-private partnerships, the government of Rwanda can make more efficient use of public resources by targeting and meeting the needs of specific populations and thus help ensure family planning services and products will be available to all Rwandans in the long term. This report aims to inform stakeholders working to strengthen family planning through multisectoral partnerships about Rwanda’s family market.

HIV Principles and Stigma Reduction Training Curriculum: Addressing HIV and Stigma in the Healthcare Setting in the Middle East and North Africa Region

This curriculum was developed for people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa region who wanted to create workshops that provide space for their supportive physicians to discuss stigma in the healthcare setting and unite in their responses to HIV. [from author]

Capacity Module Application: Estimating the Human Resources to Scale Up ART in Uganda

The focus of this brief is on examining how the lack of availability of trained personnel can constrain the ability of the government of Uganda to meet its strategic goals in scaling up antiretroviral treatment (ART). It utilizes a capacity module tool that estimates human resource requirements for HIV interventions. [from author]

Fostering Public-Private Partnerships to Reduce Health Inequities in Peru

As demand for family planning services in Peru increases, there needs to be a shift in how the public and private sectors respond. Promoting partnerships between the public and private sectors is a strategy for ensuring that unmet needs for services and contraceptives is satisfied, particularly among vulnerable populations in rural and remote regions. [from summary]

Measuring the Degree of HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination in Health Facilities and Providers: Working Report

Although progress has been made in developing programs to reduce stigma and discrimination, lack of standardized indicators for measuring their effectiveness has inhibited application and scale-up of proven strategies. This working report presents the findings from an internet-based survey designed to validate the items in an health facility and provider stigma measurement tool. The goal was to assess the validity of items designed to measure the key drivers of stigma. [from introduction]

Developing a Theory-Based Instrument to Assess the Impact of Continuing Professional Development Activities on Clinical Practice: a Study Protocol

Using an integrated model for the study of healthcare professionals’ behaviour, this study’s objective was to develop a reliable global instrument to assess the impact of accredited continuing professional development activities on clinical practice. [from abstract]

Priorities for Research into Human Resources for Health for Low and Middle Income Countries

This study aimed to identify the human resources for health (HRH) policy concerns and research priorities of key stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries; to assess the extent to which existing HRH research addresses these concerns and priorities; and to develop a prioritized list of core research questions requiring immediate attention to facilitate policy development and implementation. [from abstract]

Health System Weaknesses Constrain Access to PMTCT and Maternal HIV Services in South Africa: a Qualitative Enquiry

This study documented women’s experiences of accessing ART and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program. In-depth interviews identified considerable weaknesses within operational HIV service delivery including: shortage in staff and supplies, lack of healthworker knowledge, stigma, and inadequacy of data and information systems for monitoring and evaluation. The analysis suggests that there is great scope for health system change, much of which centers on health personnel capacity and performance. [adapted from author]

Training in Complementary Feeding Counselling of Healthcare Workers and Its Influence on Maternal Behaviours and Child Growth: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Lahore, Pakistan

The objective of the study was to determine the efficacy of training health workers in nutrition counselling in enhancing their communication skills and performance, improving feeding practices, and reducing growth faltering in children aged 6-24 months. [from abstract]

Stigma and Discrimination, the Undoing of Universal Access: a Health Care Provider's Perspective

This presentation from the 2006 International AIDS Conference outlines discriminatory practices to people living with HIV/AIDS in health care settings, contributing factors, impact on access to care, and changing health care workers’ attitudes. [adapted from author]

Health Workforce Imbalances in Times of Globalisation: Brain Drain or Professional Mobility?

This paper presents an analysis of the underlying mechanisms of health professional migration and possible strategies to reduce its negative impact on health services. [from summary]

Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries

This paper reports results from surveys in which enumerators made unannounced visits to primary schools and health clinics in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda and recorded whether they found teachers and health workers in the facilities. Averaging across the countries, about 35 percent of health workers were absent. [from author]

Per Diems Undermine Health Interventions, Systems and Research in Africa: Burying Our Heads in the Sand

While per diems appear to have been originally used to compensate for the loss of time and income caused by such participation, today they have become political instruments that taint research and intervention activities. The author believes per diems are contributing to expected failure of Africa to meet the Milliennium Development Goals by 2015 because they reduce the potential effectiveness of interventions and dilute health sector resources. [from author]

World Health Organization Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel: Background Paper

This paper describes the history of development of a WHO code of practice as well as the legal nature and significance of this proposed international instrument. The paper then highlights some key substantive issues to consider when elaborating the text of a WHO code of practice, and presents the process for moving forward the development of a WHO code of practice. [adapted from introduction]

Pacific Code of Practice for Recruitment of Health Workers and Compendium

This code provides guidelines for an ethical approach to the international recruitment of health workers in a manner that takes into account the potential impact of such recruitment on health services in the source country and it seeks to safeguard the rights of recruits, and the conditions relating to their profession in the recruiting countries. [from author]

Will We Achieve Universal Access to HIV/AIDS Services with the Health Workforce We Have: a Snapshot from Five Countries

Recognizing the global human resources for health (HRH) shortage, the Alliance commissioned a task force to examine the HRH implications of scaling up to reach the Millennium Development Goal 6 of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. This report shares the results from this work and describes critical interventions to ensure there are sufficient HRH to support the scale up toward universal access. [from summary]

World List of Pharmacy Schools

The International Pharmaceutical Federation’s World List of Pharmacy Schools is an extensive and up-to-date list of institutions of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences education and is continually updated and reviewed by those listed, providing the latest contact information to the outside world. [adapted from publisher]

Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN)

The Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) method is a human resource management tool. It provides health managers a systematic way to make staffing decisions in order to manage their valuable human resources.

Peer Group Intervention Reduces Personal HIV Risk for Malawian Health Workers

This study aimed to test a peer group intervention to address personal HIV prevention needs of rural health workers in Malawi. [from abstract]

Essential Core Competencies Related to HIV and AIDS are Critically Needed in Nursing

This article outlines the need for establishing contextually appropriate competencies in HIV and AIDS nursing as a fundamental step toward ensuring success in addressing the pandemic in Southern Africa.

Community-Based Access to Injectables: an Advocacy Guide

Studies and field observations have found that community health workers (CHWs) can provide injectables safely and that community access to injectables attracts new contraceptive users. This guide is designed to assist the many health professionals and advocates who are interested in making injectable contraceptives more widely available, especially for women with little or no access to health facilities. The guide describes six steps that advocates can take to support policy change to permit CHWs to provide injectables. [from summary]

Decentralization of the Provision of Health Services to People Living with HIV/AIDS in Rural China: the Case of Three Counties

This study assesses the new decentralized service provision system for people living with HIV/AIDS in rural populations in China. [from abstract]

Perceived Unfairness in Working Conditions: the Case of Public Health Services in Tanzania

The main objective of this article is to explore health workers’ experience of working conditions, linked to motivation to work. [from abstract]

Recent Changes in Human Resources for Health at the District Level in Indonesia: Evidence from Three Districts in Java

This study reportw changes between 2006 and 2008 in numbers and employment status of health staff in three districts of Indonesia following the central government decision to offer doctors, nurses and midwives on contract the chance to convert to permanent civil service status. [adapted from abstract]

Attraction and Retention of Qualified Health Workers to Rural Areas in Nigeria: a Case Study of Four LGAs in Ogun State, Nigeria

This study aimed to determine factors that will attract and retain rural and urban health workers to rural Nigerian communities, and to examine differences between the two groups. [from abstract]

Following the Funding Trail: Financing, Nurses and Teamwork in Australian General Practice

This paper begins with a review of general practice financing in Australia, and how nurses are currently funded. We then examine the influence on funding structures on the role of the nurse. We set out three dilemmas for policymakers in this area: lack of an evidence base for incentives, possible untoward impacts on interdisciplinary functioning, and the substitution/enhancement debate. [from abstract]

National Survey of Inactive Physicians in the United States of America: Enticements to Reentry

Physicians leaving and reentering clinical practice can have significant medical workforce implications. This study surveyed inactive physicians younger than typical retirement age to determine their reasons for clinical inactivity and what barriers, real or perceived, there were to reentry into the medical workforce. [from abstract]

Reciprocal Learning and Chronic Care Model Implementation in Primary Care: Results from a New Scale of Learning in Primary Care Settings

The authors postulate that learning among clinic group members is a particularly important attribute of a primary care clinic that has not yet been well-studied in the health care literature, but may be related to the ability of primary care practices to improve the care they deliver. This article aimes to better understand learning in primary care settings by developing a scale of learning in primary care clinics based on the literature related to learning across disciplines, and to examine the association between scale responses and chronic care model implementation. [from abstract]

Evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses of NHS Workforce Planning Methodes

This article examines the different methods used in National Health Service (NHS) workforce planning and development. It is designed to help nurse managers select and apply methods for evaluating or estimating their staffing needs and looks at the future for workforce planning and development. [from abstract]

My Work as a Midwife

This 2:21 video introduces Ade Yanarsih’s work and challenges as a local health worker and community midwife in Kampung Cirendeng, Indonesia.