Knowledge Management

Healthcare Professionals' Intentions to Use Clinical Guidelines: a Survey Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study evaluated which factors affect health professionals’ intentions to use clinical guidelines generally in their decision-making on patient care. [adapted from abstract]

Healthcare Professionals' Intentions to Use Wiki-Based Reminders to Promote Best Practices in Trauma Care: a Suvey Protocol

Since wikis depend on collaborators to keep content up-to-date, healthcare professionals who use wikis must adopt behaviors that foster this collaboration. This protocol describes the methods we will use to develop and test the metrological qualities of a questionnaire that will assess healthcare professionals’ intentions and the determinants of those intentions to use wiki-based reminders that promote best practices in trauma care. [from abstract]

Evidence Based Guidelines or Collectively Constructed Mindlines? Ethnographic Study of Knowledge Management in Primary Care

The objective of this study was to explore in depth how primary care clinicians (general practitioners and practice nurses) derive their individual and collective healthcare decisions through an ethnographic study using standard methods (non-participant observation, semistructured interviews, and documentary review) over two years. [adapted from author]

Rejection of an Innovation: Health Information Management Training Materials in East Africa

This paper reports on a research study to investigate the introduction of new information management strategies intended to promote an informational approach to management at the operational health service level in low-income countries. It aims to understand the process taking place when externally developed training materials, which are intended to strengthen health management information systems, are introduced to potential users in an east African country. [from author]

Going the Last Mile: How Can We Achieve Health Information for All?

This presentation was a part of a 2009 Global Health Mini-University and covers acheiving health information for all; defining knowledge for health; information needs, capacity and delivery preferences of health professionals; and extending the reach and use of health information. [adapted from author]

Developing Capacity in Health Informatics in a Resource Poor Setting: Lessons from Peru

In resource poor settings, informatics represents an important and emerging focus in healthcare settings. However, in developing countries, the need for training and retention of health professionals in informatics remains one of the greatest public health challenges. This article outlines a training program in informatics in Peru. [adapted from introduction]

Retaining Institutional Wisdom: Using an Evidence-Informed Approach to Transfer Knowledge from Experienced Nurses to New Nursing Staff

The nursing service of a Quebec-based health and social services centre has developed an evidence-informed approach to capture knowledge from experienced nurses, and transfer it to new nursing staff. The project has increased the success rate of new nurse orientations and retention, and has reduced the reliance on supplemental nursing resources. [adapted from author]

Knowledge Management and Human Resources for Health: Using Quality Information to Make Better Decisions

This legacy brief describes the knowledge management principles and successful initiatives of the Capacity Project such as the HRH Global Resource Center, the HRH Action Framework, the Uganda Ministry of Health KM Portal and health information libraries.

Knowledge and Communication Needs Assessment of Community Health Workers in a Developing Country: a Qualitative Study

We conducted this study to document the perceptions of community health workers in Pakistan on their knowledge and communication needs, image building through mass media and mechanisms for continued education. [adapted from abstract]

Managing Evidence-Based Knowledge: the Need for Reliable, Relevant and Readable Resources

The sheer volume of research-based evidence is one of the main barriers to better use of knowledge. About 10 years ago, if general internists wanted to keep abreast of the primary clinical literature, they would have needed to read 17 articles daily. Today, with more than 1000 articles indexed daily by MEDLINE, that figure is likely double. The problem is compounded by the inability of clinicians to afford more than a few seconds at a time in their practices for finding and assimilating evidence.

New Era: Health Information Resource Centers in Southern Sudan

In Southern Sudan, the Capacity Project is strengthening the Ministry of Health’s ability to hire, train and manage a high-quality health workforce. Opened in May 2008, the Project-supported resource center provides hospital staff, medical students and Ministry of Health personnel with print and electronic materials, library services, Internet access and computer training. [adapted from author]

Using Facts to Improve Health Worker Allocation in Cote d'Ivoire

Before the HRH situation could be addressed, it had to be measured. While it was long apparent that HRH availability, quality, and management needed to be improved, data to determine staffing needs and guide staff training and allocation were lacking. [from author]

What Can Health Care Professionals in the United Kingdom Learn from Malawi?

This commentary article is focused on encouraging debate and discussion as to how health care professionals in the developed world might wish to re-think the relationship with colleagues in other health care environments and consider how to work together on a theme of two-way shared learning rather than one-way aid. [adapted from abstract]

Information Needs of Health Care Workers in Developing Countries: a Literature Review with a Focus on Africa

Health care workers in developing countries continue to lack access to basic, practical information to enable them to deliver safe, effective care. This paper provides the first phase of a broader literature review of the information and learning needs of health care providers in developing countries. [from abstract]

Building the Bridge from Human Resources Data to Effective Decisions: Ten Pillars of Successful Data-Driven Decision-Making

With external assistance, developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa are beginning to establish better human resources information systems (HRIS) as part of a comprehensive and integrated response to some of the fundamental challenges posed by the health crisis. While this is a positive development, it is equally important to begin thinking about simple, practical approaches for supporting HR planners and senior decision-makers to be effective leaders and managers of HR data. [from author]

Using Data to Improve Service Delivery: a Self-Evaluation Approach

This guide will help frontline health workers use the data collected at health facilities to solve common problems in service delivery and improve their response to community needs. It is intended for doctors, nurses, and midwives in community-based health centers. The overall aim of the guide is to promote greater use of existing service data to improve health services. It does not require health workers to collect any additional data. [introduction]

Meeting of the Africa Health Workforce Observatory

This is a summary report from the Africa Health Workforce Observatory meeting held September 26-29, 2006, at the ECSA headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The meeting focused on developing mechanisms to create up-to-date and reliable information that enables evidence-based decision making for HRH. [adapted from author’s description]

Case Study of a Longstanding Online Community of Practice Involving Critical Care and Advanced Practice Nurses

The aims of this study are: to examine to what extent critical care and advanced practice nurses’participation in an online listserv constituted a community of practice, and to explore how the nurses use electronic media to communicate with one another. Findings suggest that the online listserv environment, as a whole, did function as an online community of practice, where participation not only served as an avenue for knowledge sharing situated in the actual context of the nurses’ everyday work experience, but also helped to reinforce identity of the nursing practice itself. [from abstrac

Managing Knowledge to Improve Reproductive Health Programs

This paper explores the implications and impact of knowledge management on family planning and reproductive health care. Using case studies and illustrative vignettes, the paper highlights the experiences of a number of developing country family planning/reproductive health organizations in integrating knowledge management tools and strategies to improve work processes and outcomes. [publisher’s description]

Utility of a Thematic Network in Primary Health Care: A Controlled Interventional Study in a Rural Area

UniNet is an Internet-based thematic network for a virtual community of users. It supports a virtual multidisciplinary community for physicians, focused on the improvement of clinical practice. This is a study of the effects of a thematic network such as UniNet on primary care medicine in a rural area, specifically as a platform of communication between specialists at the hospital and doctors in the rural area. [from abstract]