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This paper provides a review of the reported barriers that prevent doctors from managing HIV infected patients. The four most commonly reported barriers were: fear of contagion, fear of losing patients, unwillingness to care, and inadequate knowledge /training about treating HIV patients. [from abstract]

The International Council of Nurses expressed concerns regarding the aggressive international recruitment of nurses and maintained that internationally recruited nurses might be particularly at risk of exploitation or abuse. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how recruitment agencies contributed to the emigration of South African nurses. [adapted from abstract]

The global shortage of nurses, creating opportunities for South African nurses to work in foreign countries, as well as a variety of factors related to nursing, health care and the general living conditions in South Africa influence nurses’ decisions to emigrate. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the factors that influence nurses’ decisions to emigrate. [from abstract]

This qualitative study was undertaken to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses in their relationships with nurse managers. [from abstract]

This cross-sectional study assessed knowledge and utilization of the partograph, an effective tool for monitoring labour that can prevent prolonged or obstructed labour, among health care workers in southwestern Nigeria. [adapted from author]

Continuing education is necessary for all health care providers to remain up-to-date with the rapid technological advances and accumulation of new knowledge resulting from constant research. This booklet is intended to provide guidelines for planning, accrediting and implementing continuing professional development in Uganda. [adapted from foreword]

In response to the critical HRH shortages in Africa, DFID and Office of the US Global Aids Coordinator (OGAC) have been in discussion with a number of African countries to develop strategies and country level actions. The aim is to demonstrate the maximum flexibility of disease specific programmes to support broad based primary care in line with countries’ health plans.

We reviewed published literature that outlines the principles of quality assurance in higher education from various institutions worldwide. Using this information, we designed a handbook that outlines the quality assurance principles in a simple and practical way. This was intended to enable institutions, even in developing countries, to adapt these principles in accordance with their local resource capacity. We subsequently pilot-tested this handbook at one of the sites in Ghana. [from abstract]

To help build the health workforce in Uganda, the Capacity Project is assisting the Ministry of Health to strengthen its human resources management and ability to gather and use accurate data for strategic planning. Drawing on key policy questions developed by the Health Workforce Advisory Board, the Capacity Project installed a certification and licensing information system at the four health professional councils and a human resources management system at the Ministry of Health.

While the recruitement of rural doctors is steadily rising, there is concern about their long-term retention. In response, an orientation course for recently established rural doctors was set up in 2003, based on a training needs assessment. This paper draws lessons from this experience, focusing on processes and mechanisms operating in the relation between training and retention in rural practice. [adapted from author]

This article reports on an initiative in a rural New Zealand community to meet the need for after hours care. First contact for patients is with a community nursing team operating from the local health centre, complemented by on-call advice from GPs and GP clinics twice daily at weekends. The article reports on the demand for after hours services generated by a geographically defined community in New Zealand. [from introduction]

After a curriculum review, Makerere University’s longstanding traditional curriculum was converted to a problem based learning curriculum with a focus on Community Based Education and Service (COBES). As a component of COBES, radiography, medical, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy students are sent to community health facilities where they are expected to participate in community services and other primary healthcare activities.

There is increasing consensus that training programmes should focus on know-how instead of know-all. IntraHealth International’s Learning for performance: a guide and toolkit for health worker training and education programs offers a step-by-step, customizable approach designed to develop the right skills linked to job responsibilities. Using Learning for Performance yields more efficient training that focuses on what is essential for health workers to do their jobs and on effective learning methods.

The theme of this edition is primary health care in South Africa. It includes national and international perpescitves on primary health care and focuses on areas such as policy and legislation, infectious diseases, maternal and child health and human resources. Chapter 11 discusses strengthening human resources for primary care. [adapted from summary]

This presentation on the emergency HR program in Malawi was offered during a dialogue hosted by the WHO and OECD.

This document discusses the in-country ownership of health initiatives from the Health Sector Strategic Plan focusing on critical areas such as retention, recruitment and occupational safety.

This review surveys trends in physician supply in the United States from 1980 to the present. It discusses the composition of the physician workforce; changes in the inflows and outflows of the physician workforce; and how international migration, retirement, part-time practice and alternative employment have impacted the physician workforce. Finally, the paper considers implications of physician shortages and the recruitment of physicians from abroad. [adapted from summary]

The United States has the largest professional nurse workforce in the world but does not produce enough nurses to meet its growing demand. The U.S. is now the world’s major importer of nurses, but the shortage is too large to be solved by recruitment abroad without depleting world nursing resources. The national shortage could be largely addressed by investments in expanding nursing school capacity. [adapted from summary]

Most healthcare in the UK is delivered through the National Health Service (NHS). Shortages of skilled staff led to policy changes including international recruitment of health professionals. Subsequent changes in the UK migration policy have impacted international recruitment, leading to a significant reduction in the inflow of international clinicians to the NHS. [adapted from summary]

Italy’s aging population is placing a strain on the public health system. Care for the aged has increasingly been delegated to informal immigrant workers. However, international migration will not be sufficient to solve Italy’s health care professional needs. [adapted from summary]

This OECD report examines the role played by immigrant health workers in the Canadian health workforce, as well as the interactions between migration policies and education and health workforce management policies. [adapted from introduction]

This paper investigates the impact of the framework and strategies to retain critical health professionals (CHPs) that the Zimbabwean government has put in place, particularly regarding non-financial incentives, in the face of continuing high out-migration. [from summary]

This document summarizes a project to design, implement and compare two models of integrating CT for HIV within FP services in 23 health facilities in Kenya in terms of their feasibility, acceptability, cost and effect on the voluntary use of CT, as well as the quality of FP services. [adapted from summary]

This article suggests that India’s maternal mortality rate is so high due to political, administrative and managerial issues such as the lack of exclusive midwifery training and professional midwives. [adapted from author]

Well-functioning health information systems are required to ensure the production, analysis, dissemination and use of reliable and timely essential human resources for health (HRH) information needed for workforce planning, management and evaluation. This project aims to produce a set of indicators and domains with definitions and associated fact-sheets to establish a minimum data set to record, share, analyse and apply HRH data.

This article profiles three leaders from Afghanistan, South Africa, and Southern Sudan who have made a significant difference in those countries’ HR situations. By taking a comprehensive approach and working in partnership with stakeholders, these leaders demonstrate that strengthening health workforce planning, management, and training can have a positive effect on the performance of the health sector. [from author]

Tanzania’s government has developed various policies and guidelines to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including a five-year commitment to provide anti-retroviral therapy to 500,000 Tanzanians. This program faces many HRH-related challenges and constraints. This report discusses the implementation of a home-based care model to support older caregivers for Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS. [adapted from report]

Shortages and maldistibution of physicians in northern Ontario, Canada, have been a longstanding issue. This study seeks to document, in a chronological manner, the introduction of programs intended to help solve the problem by the provincial government over a 35-year period and to examine several aspects of policy implementation, using these programmes as a case study. [from abstract]

This paper analyzes China’s current health workforce in terms of quantity, quality, and distribution. Unlike most countries, China has more doctors than nurses. Doctor density in urban areas was more than twice that in rural areas, with nurse density showing more than a three-fold difference. Over the past decade there has been a massive expansion of medical education, with an excess in the production of health workers over absorption into the health workforce.

This report looks at how the landscape of human resources for health (HRH) has evolved and current key challenges. It looks at the complexities of HRH planning and management in the current environment and how various jurisdictions are finding innovative ways to collect and use HHR information. It also talk abouts education and training, workplace environment, distribution and migration, and provides updated data and information on supply-side trends for health professions. [adapted from author]


There is also a reference guide that provides aggregate, supply-based trend information.