East Asia & Pacific

This review describes the state of health leadership and management capacity in Papua New Guinea. [from summary]

This article reports on the successful development of a postgraduate medical training system through a series of international partnerships in Loas over the past decade.

The main purpose of this study was to discuss the nationality differences of foreign nurse aides and the effect of work stressors influencing work adjustment. [from abstract]

Many countries, including Vietnam, are debating the right mix of interventions to motivate doctors in particular to work in remote areas. The objective of this study was to understand the dynamics of the health labour market in Vietnam, and what might encourage doctors to accept posts and remain in-post in rural areas. [from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in the Solomon Islands: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

This article presents factors that influenced the implementation of a capacity building assistance program in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Island jurisdictions that worked with health professionals to develop local organizational and clinical HIV capacity. It also evaluates the program to understand the contextual factors affecting the delivery of services. [adapted from introduction]

To improve clinician ability to recognize HIV and understand treatment, Hawai’s AIDS Education and Training Center developed innovative ways of training and building capacity. This is a report of the program and the experiences with these clinicians. [adapted from introduction]

The purpose of this study was to report on the preparedness of medical students and junior doctors to commit to working in areas of workforce shortage. [from abstract]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Fiji – their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]

The purpose of this research is to project the future growth of the Japanese medical doctor workforce from 2008 to 2050 and to forecast whether the proposed additional increase in the student quota will cause a doctor surplus. [from abstract]

The objectives of this study are to understand the perspectives of physicians, pharmacists, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and dispensers on self-management of patients with chronic conditions, in addition to exploring the possibilities of developing pharmacist-led patient self-management in Hong Kong. [from abstract]

The reported study sought the views of mental health organisation leaders from Gippsland to identify current approaches and potential solutions to the challenges of workforce recruitment, retention and training in rural areas. [from abstract]

This review describes the current situation of health leadership and management capacity in Cambodia after its efforts to rebuild its health system following years of conflict that decimated the country’s health infrastructure. [from summary]

The purpose of this paper is to describe implementation and impact of a community-based prenatal care trial on the utilization of prenatal care and perinatal outcomes in China. [adapted from abstract]

This study seeks to contribute to the government of Indonesia’s broader health system assessment by answering key health workforce questions. It examines changes in the supply and quality of health service providers and practitioners and links those changes with past and ongoing reforms. [from author]

This paper provides an overview of the Thai health workforce situation and challenges, policy initiatives and programs aimed at addressing health workforce challenges, and a discussion of future challenges and key information and evidence gaps. [adapted from preface]

This article suggests a strategy for addressing the difficulty in training enough health workers involving creating satellite sites of colleges that offer health worker training at district hospitals or other health worksites. [adapted from author]

This research examines the factors that current health professionals from the U.S. Pacific Islands region describe as helping and hindering them in their pursuit of health careers, as well as the barriers seen by students, educators and health professionals. [from abstract]

The authors describe the development of a distance learning health education program for rural communities that developed a network of rural community learning centers to employ distance learning technologies for community-driven peer education in isolated areas of the Marshall Islands. [adapted from abstract]

This article discusses Thailand’s mandatory health service system. Under this system, all early-career health workers from public professional schools serve in rural areas as a governmental worker to maintain the rural health workforce. The system has ameliorated the shortage of physicians in rural areas by substantially decreasing the emigration of Thai physicians to foreign countries.

This study assesses the effectiveness of a tailored evidence-based practice (EBP) training program for Filipino physiotherapists in improving knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviour, and capacity to engage with referring doctors to determine the most effective treatments for their patients. [adapted from abstract]

The toolkit describes a process of implementing community empowerment in maternal and neonate health (MNH) and each step of the process, including guidelines and training manuals for the implementation process. The aim of this toolkit is to provide an example of possible best practice in community mobilisation to compliment medical based initiatives to reduce maternal death. [adapted from author]

The term “Desa Siaga” describes the concept of community members owning their own resources and capacities for preventing and overcoming their own health problems, health emergencies and disasters based on mutual support and in a spirit of togetherness. This cost analysis provides additional information for all stakeholders contributing to informed decision making regarding DS implementation and this from an economic perspective. [from executive summary]

The quality of health services is influenced by the technical and managerial skills of the hospital team. This training curriculum aims to improve the management skills of the hospital teams by focusing on behavioral change and institutionalizing of the culture of quality improvement. [from foreword]

This paper reflects an initial review of aid effectiveness in relation to human resources for health. It asks whether the recent aid effectiveness agenda, as expressed in commitments made to the Paris Declaration, is responding appropriately to the specific needs of HRH and countries’ efforts to strengthen and scale up human resources. [from author]

This report examines the growing phenomenon of the international migration of skilled health workers (nurses, doctors and more specialised workers, such as pharmacists, radiologists and lab technicians) in the Asia-Pacific region. [from summary]

Nearly four million neonatal deaths occur annually in the world despite existing evidence-based knowledge with the potential to prevent many of these deaths. Effective knowledge translation (KT) could help to bridge this know-do gap in global health. The aim of this study was to explore aspects of KT at the primary healthcare level in a northern province in Vietnam. [from abstract]

This article reports on a pilot evaluation of distance education modalities was conducted among U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands healthcare workers. [from abstract]

There has been a well documented need for continuing education (CE) for health workers in the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands region. This executive summary highlights key points from a series of CE needs assessments conducted in the region in 2004. [from abstract]

This article outlines a program developed to provide formal training for health workers in the Western Pacific to address HRH problems in the region, especially the adverse impact of both the absolute shortages of select health workers and the under-training of many of the current health workforce. [adapted from author]