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Scaling Up Proven Public Health Interventions through a Locally Owned and Sustained Leadership Development Programme in Rural Upper Egypt

The Ministry of Health introduced a leadership development program in Aswan Governorate. The program aimed to improve health services in three districts by increasing managers’ ability to create high performing teams and lead them to achieve results. The program introduced leadership and management practices and a methodology for identifying and addressing service delivery challenges. [adapted from abstract]

Who Goes Where and Why? Examining HIV Counseling and Testing Services in the Public and Private Sectors in Zambia

The objectives of this study include documenting the role of the private for-profit sector in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service delivery; establishing whether there are significant differences in the quality of VCT services, particularly in counseling and referral practices, between public, private for-profit, NGO, and mission providers; measuring key VCT service statistics at facilities within each sector; and identify best practices from each sector. [adapted from introduction]

Employment Integration of Nursing Graduates: Evaluation of a Provincial Policy Strategy Nursing Graduate Guarantee 2008-2009

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]

Strategies to Advance 70% Full-Time Nurse Employment Toolkit

This toolkit was designed for nurse employers across the province of Ontario to use as a resource in working toward the 70% full-time nurse commitment. It is a practical guide to assist Nurse Managers and Human Resource Staff in identifying staffing needs and creating organization-specific strategies to increase full-time employment for nurses. [from author]

Integrating Internationally Educated Health Care Professionals into the Ontario Workforce

The purpose of this report is to provide background information to support the development of guidelines for the integration of internationally educated health professionals into the Ontario workplace. [from summary]

Impact of HIV Scale-Up on the Role of Nurses in South Africa: Time for a New Approach

HIV scale-up has triggered innovations in nurse training, task shifting, retention, and scope of practice that need not remain HIV specific. Lessons learned in the context of HIV have the potential to enhance nursing practice and human resources for health more generally, strengthening South Africa’s health systems and improving access to effective health services. [from abstract]

Using HIS/GIS Data and Tools to Improve Resource Allocation: the Yemen Experience

This presentation for the APHA Annual Meeting illustrates the use of geographic and health information systems to identify gaps in service delivery and vaccination coverage in Yemen in order to assign human and technical resources.

Observer Program: Insights from International Medical Graduates

This paper presents the findings of qualitative research documenting the participant experiences in the Observer Program, a hospital-based pre-employment program for international medical graduates entering the Australian healthcare system. [adapted from author]

Outcomes of Community Health Worker Interventions

The objective of this document was to conduct a systematic review of the evidence on characteristics of community health workers (CHWs) and CHW interventions, outcomes of such interventions, costs and cost-effectiveness of CHW interventions, and characteristics of CHW training. [from abstract]

Implementation of Performance Support Approaches in Central America and Uganda

The Capacity Project worked with governments and partners in Central America and Uganda to test approaches for strengthening supervision systems in the health sector, as one component of the Project’s workforce performance support strengthening. [from summary]

Action Now on the Tanzanian Health Worker Crisis: Expanding Health Worker Training the Twiga Initiative

Recognizing the need to focus on health worker supply in order to achieve progress on health indicators, the Ministry of Health in Tanzania developed the Twiga Initiative to strengthen health workforce production through. This document outlines the steps taken to improve health worker training and institutions and the challenges involved. [adapted from author]

Effectiveness of a Training Programme to Improve Hand Hygiene Compliance in Primary Healthcare

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a training program on hand hygiene for the reduction of healthcare-associated infections for primary healthcare workers. [adapted from author]

Macroeconomic and Fiscal Issues in Scaling Up Human Resources for Health in Low-Income Countries

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the fiscal and macroeconomic implications associated with scaling up health workforce capacity. While these general issues and concepts are relevant in all setting, the focus of the discussion is on low-income countries and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. [from publisher]

Measuring the Efficiency of Human Resources for Health for Attaining Health Outcomes across Subnational Units in Brazil

This background paper documents the analytical work conducted for the World Health Report 2006 to provide new evidence on the relationship between the density of human resources for health and the coverage of key health interventions, at subnational level in Brazil. The analysis highlights how socioeconomic conditions of the population moderates the ability of health workers to perform their tasks efficiently and how various policies have succeeded in increasing the coverage of antenatal care services. [from publisher]

Estimating Inflows and Outflows of Health Service Providers in Sub-Saharan Africa

This background study to the World Health Report 2006 is an attempt to provide a preliminary analysis of inflow and outflow patterns of health service providers in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is limited only to three types of health workers—doctors, nurses and midwives—and to countries in the region with critical shortages of health workers. [from publisher]

Does a Competitive Voucher Program for Adolescents Improve the Quality of Reproductive Health Care? A Simulated Patient Study in Nicaragua

This study evaluates the impact and sustainability of a competitive voucher program on the quality of reproductive health care for poor and underserved female adolescents and the usefulness of the simulated patient method for such evaluation. [from abstract]

WISN Toolkit: Toolkit for Implementing Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) to Improve Health Workforce Planning and Management in Decentralized Health Systems

The Toolkit is adapted from the WHO WISN Manual. WISN has traditionally been in a top down approach with limited success, particularly when applying it within the context of a decentralized government system. It was recognized that a more innovative approach was required to implement the methodology successfully at decentralized levels. [from author]

Measuring the Degree of Stigma and Discrimination in Kenya: an Index for HIV/AIDS Facilities and Providers

The objective of this study was to field test tools designed to measure stigma and discrimination against patient with HIV/AIDS in the Kenyan context, focusing on facilities and providers of health services. [adapted from summary]

Rates of Virological Failure in Patients Treated in a Home-Based Versus a Facility-Based HIV-Care Model in Jinja, Southeast Uganda: a Cluster-Randomised Equivalence Trial

Identification of new ways to increase access to antiretroviral therapy in Africa is an urgent priority. We assessed whether home-based HIV care was as effective as facility-based care. [from summary]

Predicting Intention to Treat HIV-Infected Patients among Tanzanian and Sudanese Medical and Dental Students Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour: a Cross Sectional Study

The HIV epidemic poses significant challenges to the low income countries in sub Saharan Africa, affecting the attrition rate among health care workers, their level of motivation, and absenteeism from work. This study aimed to predict the intention to provide surgical treatment to HIV infected patients among medical- and dental students in Tanzania and Sudan using an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. [from abstract]

Is Management Theory Universal? Training Health Professionals in Pakistan

This brief outlines the teaching of management theory in a training centre for government health workers in Peshawar, Pakistan. The study finds that imposing western principles of management is often inappropriate. Training must build on the strengths and address the weaknesses of local management styles in a sensitive manner. [from author]

Pilot Study of the Use of Community Volunteers to Distribute Azithromycin for Trachoma Control in Ghana

The objective of this study was to assess the skills of community health volunteers in diagnosing active trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness, and distributing azithromycin treatment in the Northern Region of Ghana. [adapted from author]

Uganda Registers Successes with Child-Health Volunteers

Thanks to a small cadre of village volunteers, trained in basic health-care concepts, western Uganda is beginning to see some promising improvements in child health. [from author]

National Trends in the United States of America Physician Assistant Workforce from 1980 to 2007

The physician assistant (PA) profession is a nationally recognized medical profession in the United States of America. The authors examined the 1980-2007 US census data to determine the demographic distribution of the PA workforce and PA-to-population relationships. Maps were developed to provide graphical display of the data. [adapted from abstract]

Sustainable Scaling Up of Good Quality Health Worker Education for Tuberculosis Control in Indonesia: a Case Study

This article describes a systematic process to develop and implement two strategic action plans focussing on competence development based on specific job descriptions. The approach was a change from only focussing on training, to a broader, long term approach to human resource development for comprehensive TB control. [adapted from abstract]

Who Are Health Managers? Case Studies from Three African Countries

This report outlines a rapid descriptive assessment to gain an initial understanding of the management workforce for service delivery in Ethipia, Ghana and Tanzania and to test selected criteria for assessing managers as part of the health workforce. [adapted from summary]

Aging Medical Workforce in Australia: Where Will the Medical Educators Come From?

This paper examines aging of the general medical practitioner and specialist workforce in Australia and projects the numbers and timing of their retirement to 2025. It also discusses the impact that the retirement of experienced health care professionals has on the training requirements of the future health care workforce. [adapted from author]

Health Workforce Development in the Cuban Health System

A well trained and well managed workforce is crucial for facilitating access to good quality health services. This brief article examines the development of the health workforce and the systems that support them in Cuba. [adapted from author]

Role of Community Health Workers in Improving Child Health Programmes in Mali

In rural settings, the promotion of household and community health practices through community health workers (CHWs) is among the key strategies to improve child health. The objective of this study was to assess the performance of CHWs in the promotion of basic child health services in rural Mali. [from abstract]

Assessment of Human Resources Management Practices in Lebanese Hospitals

The objective of this study is to assess the perception of HR managers about the challenges they face and the current strategies being adopted. The study also aims at assessing enabling factors including role, education, experience and HR training. [from abstract]