Browse by Geographic Focus

In this study, the overall job satisfaction of medical laboratory scientist graduates of one Kuwaiti University was examined in relation to the environment and organizational features of their places of employment. [from abstract]

India has traditionally had a bureaucratic approach to regulating its health service. Research suggests that this approach has failed to protect the interests of poor and vulnerable groups and has not gained the trust of providers or the public. So are there any other ways to make India’s health systems more accountable? [from author]

There is a gross shortage of nurses, yet there is a need to provide quality care and defend patient care. Widening scope of practice is not new to all categories of nurses and given the Occupational Specific Dispensation for nurses there is a need to critically engage with these issues.

In what areas do the HIV/AIDS donor programs interact with key operational parts of health systems? To answer it, and to better inform the ongoing discussion of AIDS and health systems, the report investigates and compares the donors’ interactions in three countries (Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia) with three components of health systems: the health information system, the supply chain system for essential medicines, and human resources for health. [from summary] Chapter 4 is dedicated to the HRH aspects of this issue.

Leaders of the University of Belize’s Faculty of Nursing and Allied Health had a vision. Their country has the third highest HIV prevalence in the region, after Haiti and Guyana, yet it lacked an effective system for training providers in counseling and testing. As faculty members, they dreamed of establishing a national training center that would provide the latest resources and trainings for both students and providers. [from author]

The Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States reflects the mutual recognition of stakeholder interests relevant to the recruitment of foreign educated nurses. It is based on an acknowledgement of the rights of individuals to migrate, as well as an understanding that the legitimate interests and responsibilities of nurses, source countries, and employers in the destination country may conflict.

Preparing health workers to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic is an urgent challenge in Haiti. There is a critical shortage of doctors, leaving nurses as the primary care providers for much of the population. Haiti’s nurses play a leading role in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. However, they do not receive sufficient training at the pre-service level to carry out this important work. The Ministry of Health and Population collaborated with the International Training and Education Center on HIV to create a competency-based HIV/AIDS curriculum to be integrated into the the national schools

Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world, with some of the worst health worker to population ratios. Most health services are provided by clinical officers, medical assistants and enrolled nurses. The government has taken action to address the staffing shortfall, estimated at 15,000. [from author]

Care for most women before, during and after delivery can be provided within a well equipped primary care setting. Since the 1980s Indonesia has attempted to improve women’s access to maternal health care by assigning professional midwives to each village. Despite an increase in the number of midwives, maternal mortality remains high compared to other countries with similar Gross Domestic Product per capita. [from introduction]

While previous Egyptian studies have identified provider practices contributing to maternal mortality, none has focused on neonatal care. This report details a survey of reported practices of birth attendants. As well, 217 recently-delivered mothers in rural areas of three governorates were interviewed about antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care they received. [from abstract]

Neonatal mortality accounts for a high proportion of deaths in children under the age of 5 years in Bangladesh. This article describes a project for advancing the health of newborns and mothers implementing a community-based intervention package through government and non-government organisation infrastructures to reduce neonatal mortality. [from abstract]

This report details the findings of the Forum on Engaging the Private Sector in Child Health held in Uganda in 2005. It discusses the potential of private providers and the private sector as a resource for improving community health outcomes. [from executive summary]

Task shifting should not be viewed as a panacea for the human resources challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa. Rather, it must be part of an overall strategy that includes measures to increase, retain, and sustain health staff. [from author]

Swaziland has taken the lead in caring for overburdened health workers with the opening of the first Wellness Centre in Manzini for them and their families. This article reports on this innovative response to the deepening crisis in human resources for health in sub-Saharan Africa. [adapted from author]

In 2001 the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Gezira (FMUG) introduced the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy into its medical curriculum. The emphasis was on pre-service training that addresses standard case management and the IMCI community component. This report presents the experience of FMUG in integrating such a training package into the medical curriculum. It explains the rationale for introducing the IMCI community component and the guiding principles for doing so.

This case study evaluates a project in Kenya that concentrates on HIV and AIDS care and prevention through support and training of community volunteers to provide PLHA with HBC, widespread and diverse efforts to promote behavior change and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, improving access to VCT, as well as capacity building efforts and direct material assistance for OVC and PLHA. [adapted from introduction]

Incentives such as P4P can be very powerful in their effects. Caution in their design and deployment is essential. However, ignoring their potential would be unwise, as they offer the possibility of improving value for money for taxpayers and patients. The first section of the paper will review evidence of common provider problems in all health care systems and their implications for introducing a P4P system. This will be followed by a review of P4P reforms in the United Kingdom and United States in particular. [from author]

Scaling up the implementation of new health care interventions can be challenging and demand intensive training or retraining of health workers. This paper reports on the results of testing the effectiveness of two different kinds of face-to-face facilitation used in conjunction with a well-designed educational package in the scaling up of kangaroo mother care. [from abstract]

The Tanzanian health system is currently undergoing major reforms. As part of this, a study was commissioned into the delivery of services and care at the Muhimbili National Hospital. One of the main components of this comprehensive study was to measure the extent to which workers in the hospital were satisfied with the tasks they performed and to identify factors associated with low motivation in the workplace. [from abstract]

This paper looks at the HRH crisis as experienced by the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau network giving the trend, examining the reasons, the destinations of attritional cases and what the network is trying to do to improve human resource stability. [from abstract]

This article reports on the findings of a study into enrolled nurse (EN) to registered nurse (RN) transition in South Australian rural settings. Rural RNs are required to be multi-skilled generalists capable of providing a wide range of nursing services to a diverse range of clients. This frequently occurs in situations without medical or specialist assistance. The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the EN to RN transition process within this unique context. [from abstract]

Although there is an emerging understanding of the stressors faced by rural physicians, little is known about the experience of care providers offering maternity care in low-resourced environments. This article considers the experience of rural maternity care providers from the perspective of the social risks they perceive are incurred by practicing in a low-resource environment. [from abstract]

Preparing nurse graduates for practice is challenging because of the diversity of skills expected of them. The objective of this study is to identify the attributes a rural community expect in new graduate nurses in order for them to provide quality care. [from abstract]

This presentation discusses the roles and challenges of private sector midwives and how they can benefit community health care.

This presentation addresses the role and impact of traditional health service providers in India and how they help fill the gaps in health worker coverage. [from author]

This report describes the second phase of a study that developed and tested an integrated program of counselor job aids, mother take-home materials, and counselor training in a healthcare site providing counseling for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in Moshi District in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. [from executive summary]

This mid-term evaluation report focuses on Capacity Project support to the Government of Kenya’s Emergency Hiring Plan. It assesses the main achievements, challenges and impact on service delivery and health systems improvement, from the plan’s inception through the November 2007 mid-point. The report outlines all aspects of the approach used, providing clear recommendations on how the Ministry of Health may strengthen its existing human resource systems on the basis of lessons learned, and provides additional insights to the process, which may be useful for informing similar country contexts.

Contracting NGOs to manage the primary health care system was found to be an effective means to increase service coverage and achieve a more pro-poor distribution of services in rural areas of Cambodia. The Ministry of Health (MOH) proposed contracting NGOs to manage the public health care system at the district level using a results-based contract to monitor progress.

The Private Sector Partnerships-One (PSP-One) project fielded an assessment team to document the state of operations for the Biruh Tesfa network, identify strategies to improve network sustainability, and determine local organizations that could have a role in network management and support. In addition the team was asked to explore opportunities to integrate HIV services into the Biruh Tesfa network. [from abstract]

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a completely new pay system in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.Pay and pay systems are a critical element in any health sector human resource strategy. Changing a pay system can be one strategy to achieve or sustain organizational change. [from abstract]