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Preservice Education Family Planning Reference Guide

This guide was developed to assist preservice health institutions in Malawi in creating, updating, or adapting the family planning content of their curricula and individual courses. Included in this document are materials that institutions and individual tutors can use to develop technically accurate and pedagogically sound lessons on family planning. [adapted from introduction]

Profile and Professional Expectations of Medical Students in Mozambique: a Longitudinal Study

This paper compares the socioeconomic profile of medical students registered at the Faculty of Medicine of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, for the years 1998/99 and 2007/08 to describe the medical students’ social and geographical origins, expectations and perceived difficulties regarding their education and professional future. [adapted from abstract]

Traditional Birth Attendants Lack Basic Information on HIV and Safe Delivery Practices in Rural Mysore, India

There is little research on HIV awareness and practices of traditional birth attendants (TBA) in India. This study investigated knowledge and attitudes among rural TBA in Karnataka as part of a project examining how traditional birth attendants could be integrated into prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission of HIV programs in India. [from abstract]

How Effective is Community-Based Primary Health Care in Improving the Health of Children? A Review of the Evidence

Excitement is rapidly growing concerning the potential for community- based primary health care (CBPHC) to accelerate progress in reducing the tragedy of millions of children dying world-wide each year from readily preventable or treatable conditions. This report summarizes the current research findings concerning the effectiveness of CBPHC in improving the health of children in high-mortality, resource-poor settings. [from summary]

Private Sector Involvement in HIV Service Provision

This technical brief describes effective or promising practices that leverage the private health care sector in developing countries, taking advantage of existing infrastructure, financial resources, and expertise to better integrate HIV services and reduce the burden on public health facilities. [from introduction]

Gender-Related Power Differences, Beliefs and Reactions Towards People Living with HIV/AIDS: an Urban Study in Nigeria

This research examend HIV-related stigma in Nigeria focusing on how power differences based on gender perpetuate the stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS and how these gender differences affect the care that they receive in health care institutions. [adapted from abstract]

Multi-University Evaluation of the Rural Clinical School Experience of Australian Medical Students

Medical students have been attending rural clinical schools (RCSs) since 2001. Although there have been generally positive single institution reports, there has been no multi-institution study using a common survey instrument. The experiences of medical students who attended a number of RCSs during 2006 were evaluated using a rural-specific questionnaire. [from abstract]

Mobile Learning for HIV/AIDS Healthcare Worker Training in Resource-Limited Settings

This article presents an innovative approach to healthcare worker (HCW) training using mobile phones as a personal learning environment. Twenty physicians used individual Smartphones in urban and peri-urban HIV/AIDS clinics in Peru, where almost 70% of the nations HIV patients in need of treatment. [adapted from abstract]

Analysis of the Opinions and Experiences of Australians Involved in Health Aspects of Disaster Response Overseas to Enhance Effectiveness of Humanitarian Assistance

This report is based on findings of a study that analysed the opinions and experiences of Australians who provided humanitarian relief following disasters, in complex emergencies and wars. The issue of human resources within the humanitarian sector is now unquestionably on the agenda, and the identification of important gaps in knowledge within this field is the central thrust for the study which investigated Australian disaster workers from a broad range of health-related fields. [adapted from author]

Promising Practices to Build Human Resources Capacity in HIV Strategic Information

The aim of this document is to identify and document promising practices to plan, develop and support national human resources in HIV related strategic information/monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This document adds to recent global M&E system strengthening guidance by compiling examples of promising approaches from a wide range of countries, and is intended for use in the creation of country plans to strengthen the workforce to support a fully functional, national M&E system to ensure strategic information for HIV/AIDS programming. [adapted from summary]

Global Experience of Community Health Workers for Delivery of Health Related Millennium Development Goals: A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems

With the overall aim of identifying community health worker (CHW) programs with positive impact on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to health or otherwise, this global systematic review was undertaken of such interventions, as well as eight in-depth country case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia Mozambique and Uganda), South East Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand) and Latin America (Brazil and Haiti).

Support Tools for Evidence-Informed Health Policymaking (STP)

Each chapter of this report presents a proposed tool that can be used by those involved in finding and using research evidence to support evidence-informed health policymaking. [from author]

Implementing a Public Private Partnership Model for Managing Urban Health in Ahmedabad

Establishing a Public Private Partnership (PPP) requires a legal framework acceptable to all the partners, clarity on the commitment of resources, roles and responsibilities of each partner, as well as accountability to provide a given set of services at a desired level of quality and affordable user charges. This paper describes the design, development and implementation of a PPP for managing urban health services in Ahmedabad city, Gujarat. [adapted from abstract]

Systematic Review: Effects, Design Choices, and Context of Pay-for-Performance in Health Care

Pay-for-performance (P4P) is one of the primary tools used to support healthcare delivery reform. This paper summarizes evidence, obtained from studies published between January 1990 and July 2009, concerning P4P effects, as well as evidence on the impact of design choices, and contextual mediators on these effects. [from abstract]

Family Planning and HIV Services Toolkit

This toolkit is your one-stop source for evidence-based knowledge and promising practices to support the successful integration of family planning (FP) and HIV services. It summarizes the latest evidence and provides links to guidelines and tools to help you plan, manage, deliver, evaluate, and support integrated services. [adapted from publisher]

Human Resources in Humanitarian Health Working Group Report

Task shifting is one avenue for delivering needed health care in resource poor settings, and on-the-ground reports indicate that task shifting may be applicable in humanitarian responses to natural disasters and conflicts. This report evaluates the potential strengths and weaknesses of task shifting in humanitarian relief efforts, and proposes a range of strategies to constructively integrate task shifting into humanitarian response. [adapted from abstract]

Profiling Alumni of a Brazilian Public Dental School

Follow-up studies of former students are an efficient way to organize the entire process of professional training and curriculum evaluation. The aim of this study was to identify professional profile subgroups based on job-related variables in a sample of former students of a Brazilian public dental school. [from abstract]

Non-Financial Incentives for Voluntary Community Health Workers: a Qualitative Study

Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, this study explores the potential efficacy of non-financial incentives (NFI) proposed by the L10k project, an Ethiopian health extension project. The results of the study outline factors motivating voluntary community health workers, indicate other NFI mechanisms for consideration, and suggest programmatic recommendations. [adapated from publisher]

Tuberculosis Management by Private Practitioners in Mumbai, India: Has Anything Changed in Two Decades?

The objective of this research was to study prescribing practices of private practitioners in the treatment of tuberculosis, two decades after a similar study conducted in the same geographical area revealed dismal results. [from abstract]

Sleep and Recovery in Physicians on Night Call: a Longitudinal Field Study

The aim of the present study was to examine whether a 16-hour night-call schedule allowed for sufficient recovery in anaesthesiologists compared with other physician specialists handling less life-threatening conditions, when on call. [from abstract]

Community-Based Intervention Packages for Preventing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality and Improving Neonatal Outcomes

The objective of this literature review is to assess the effectiveness of community-based intervention packages of improved maternal care during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum, as well as care of the newborn, in preventing maternal morbidity and mortality and improving neonatal outcomes. [adapted from summary]

Exploring the Impact of Mentoring Functions on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment of New Staff Nurses

This research aimed at examining the effects of mentoring functions on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of new nurses in Taiwan’s hospitals.

Mapping Human Resources for Health Profiles from 15 Pacific Island Countries

This report summarizes a a rapid mapping of HRH resources in Pacific Island countries to generate baseline data on the current HRH situation in the region, information on in-country and external education institutions involved in HRH development, and data on external partners providing HRH-related assistance. [adapted from summary]

Characterizing Hospital Workers' Willingness to Report to Duty in an Influenza Pandemic through Threat and Efficacy Based Assessment

Hospital-based providers’ willingness to report to work during an influenza pandemic is a critical yet under-studied phenomenon. Witte’s Extended Parallel Process Model has been shown to be useful for understanding adaptive behavior of public health workers to an unknown risk, and thus offers a framework for examining scenario-specific willingness to respond among hospital staff. [from abstract]

Public-Private Mix for DOTS Implementation: What Makes It Work?

The objective of this article is to compare the processes and outcomes of four pulic-private mix project on DOTS implementation for tuberculosis control in New Delhi, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam; Nairobi, Keny; and Pune, India. [from abstract]

Entry into this World: Who Should Assist? Birth Attendants and Newborn Health

The period of birth is critical in the life of the mother and the baby. Ideally, it needs to be assisted in a competent manner by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) supported by an enabling environment. This goal has yet to be achieved in all countries. It is essential to upgrade the skills of existing SBAs in managing both the mother and baby, and to supply the necessary resources. Another key strategy is to implement suitable community-based interventions to achieve the required behaviors in family members, health workers, and volunteers to improve newborn health. [abstract]

Health Workforce Responses to Global Health Initiatives Funding: a Comparison of Malawi and Zambia

Shortages of health workers are obstacles to utilising global health initiative (GHI) funds effectively in Africa. This paper reports and analyses two countries’ health workforce responses during a period of large increases in GHI funds. [from abstract]

Challenge and Change: Integrating the Challenge of Gender Norms and Sexuality in a Maternal Health Program

This report documents some of the processes undertaken to integrate gender and sexuality factors into a maternal health project in Uttar Pradesh, India from 2007-2009. [from foreword]

Meeting Challenges, Seeding Change: Integrating Gender and Sexuality into Maternal and Newborn Health Programming through the Inner Spaces, Outer Faces Initiative (ISOFI)

This document reviews the ISOFI program. The iterative steps of this system focus on building staff and organisational capacity to critically analyse the social construction of gender and explore how gender influences personal values and beliefs and programmatic designs and choices. In turn, through the analysis-reflection-action cycle of the ISOFI Innovation System, staff can help community health providers and other stakeholders to analyse gender issues, reflect on local barriers and opportunities, and make implementation plans to catalyze change. [from author]

Assessment of the Health Management Information Systems in Select Areas of Aceh Province

This assessment evaluates a health service mangement systems project undertaken in the Aceh province after the 2004 earthquakea and tsunami. The project implemented information systems for hospitals and primary care, and this evaluation details the lessons learned and challenges from health workers as well as the short term impact the systems have had on health service delivery processes.