India

Future directions for Public Health Education reforms in India

We analyzed the Indian public health education scenario using the institutional and instructional reforms
framework advanced by the Lancet Commission report on Education of Health Professionals. [from abstract]

National Rural Health Mission in India: An Analytical Study

In this paper emphasis has been laid down to understand the rural healthcare system and the impact of NRHM in developing a positive and well-nourished country has been discussed. Various charts and tables were duly analyzed before arriving at a result. [from abstract]

Competency-Based Training “Helping Mothers Survive: Bleeding after Birth” for Providers from Central and Remote Facilities in Three Countries

To validate a new training module for skilled and semiskilled birth attendants authorized to provide care at birth—Helping Mothers Survive: Bleeding After Birth (HMS:BAB) [from abstract]

Utilization of a State Run Public Private Emergency Transportation Service Exclusively for Childbirth: The Janani (Maternal) Express Program in Madhya Pradesh, India

The objective was to study (a) the utilization of an emergency obstetric transportation service among women delivering in health facilities, (b) factors associated with usage, (c) the timeliness of the service. [adapted from abstract]

As good as physicians: patient perceptions of physicians and non-physician clinicians in rural primary health centers in India

This study investigates patient views of physicians (Medical Officers) and NPCs in terms of patient satisfaction, perceived quality, and provider trust. [from abstract]

Improving the Process of Antenatal Care to Increase Detection of Women with High-Risk Conditions in Zonal Hospital of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India

Zonal Hospital, Mandi identified that they were not identifying women with high risk conditions during their antenatal care (ANC) clinic. By re-organizing the clinic, the hospital was able to increase the proportion of pregnant women identified as being at high-risk from 1.6% to 12.3% in a matter of weeks. [from abstract]

Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among Nurses

This study assessed occupational stress and job satisfaction among nurses working in tertiary care hospitals and
to find out correlation between occupational stress and job satisfaction among nurses. [adapted from abstract]

Using Workshops to Develop Theories of Change in Give Low and Middle Income Countries: Lessons from the Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME)

Theory of Change (ToC) approach workshops are a useful approach for developing ToCs as a basis for mental health care plans because they facilitate logical, evidence based and contextualised plans, while promoting stakeholder buy in.
Because of the existing hierarchies within some health systems, strategies such as limiting the types of participants
and stratifying the workshops can be used to ensure productive workshops.

For More Than Love or Money: Attitudes of Student and In-Service Health Workers Towards Rural Service in India

In India, there is a constant tug of war in national policy on “Which health worker is needed in rural areas?” and “Who can, realistically, be got there?” In this article, we try to inform this debate by juxtaposing perspectives of three cadres involved in primary care in India—allopathic, ayurvedic and nursing—on rural service. We also identify key incentives for improved rural retention of these cadres. [adapted from abstract]

Community Based Education in Health Professions: Global Perspectives

“Community Based Education in Health Professions: Global Perspectives” presents a collection of case studies from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, India, Pakistan and South Africa describing different ways of planning, implementing and sustaining community-based education for health students. The case studies provide an account of what worked and what did not, the trials and errors, and the challenges and lessons learned. [adapted from introduction]

Impact of a Lay Counselor Led Collaborative Care Intervention for Common Mental Disorders in Public and Private Primary Care: A Qualitative Evaluation Nested in the MANUS Trial in Goa, India

This paper describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of an intervention in which lay counselors led collaborative stepped care for common mental disorders in public and private sector primary care settings, and the impact this intervention had on health and psychosocial outcomes. [adapted from abstract]

Suspending Judgement: A Report of the Training Workshop on Stigma Reduction for Health Care Workers

This report documents the findings from a three day workshop on HIV
related stigma reduction for health care workers in India. The workshop was organized to test out an approach and materials for training health care workers about HIV related stigma in order to organize a large scale training program for health care workers and to build on the efforts of the World Bank to raise awareness on HIV stigma and discrimination. [adapted from introduction]

Applying WHO's Workforce Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) Method to Calculate the Health Worker Requirements for India's Maternal and Child Health Service Guarantees in Orissa State

In one district of India, the authors used the WISN method to calculate the number of health workers required to achieve the maternal and child health service guarantees of the country and measured the difference between this ideal number and current staffing levels. [adapted from abstract]

Provider Bias or Organizational Limitations? Female and Male Health Care Workers' Interaction with Men in Reproductive Health Programmes in Rural Central India

This article examines the extent, motivation, and prevalence of village level health workers’ interaction with men concerning reproductive health issues in rural central India. [from author]

Hope for Health Workers in India

This 5 minute video tells the story of Claire, a midwife from Harlow, who visited the slums of Delhi and rural clinics in Rajasthan to see what life is like for her Indian colleagues and saw the difference that innovative projects and passionate staff can make for mothers and babies. [adapted from publisher]

Community-Based Initiatives for HIV Program Management among Most-at-Risk Populations

This case study explores the significant role of community-based initiatives and the process of collaborating with communit organziations to address HIV within communities of high-risk populations in India. [adapted from author]

Unfree Markets: Socially Embedded Informal Health Providers in Northern Karnataka, India

The authors examined how informal health markets operate from the viewpoint of informal providers (those without any government-recognised medical degrees) by drawing upon data from a household survey in 2002, a provider census in 2004 and ongoing field observations from a research site in Koppal district, Karnataka, India. [adapted from author]

Building Nurse Education Capacity in India: Insights from a Faculty Development Programme in Andhra Pradesh

Improving educational capacity through nursing faculty development has been proposed as one of several strategies to address a complex health human resource situation. This paper describes and critically reflects upon the experience of one such faculty development programme in the state of Andhra Pradesh. [from abstract]

Successful Polio Eradication in Uttar Pradesh, India: The Pivotal Contribution of the Social Mobilization Network, an NGO/UNICEF Collaboration

This article reports on a successful partnership to improve access and reduce family and community resistance to polio vaccination in India. The partners trained thousands of mobilizers from high-risk communities to visit households, promote government-run child immunization services, track children’s immunization history and encourage vaccination of children missing scheduled vaccinations, and mobilize local opinion leaders. [adapted from author]

Literature Review: The Role of the Private Sector in the Production of Nurses in India, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand

This study examines the supply of, demand for, and policy
environment of private nurse production in four selected countries. [from abstract]

Networking between Community Health Programs: A Case Study Outlining the Effectiveness, Barriers and Enablers

This research explores the factors that facilitate and impede community health network activation, framing, mobilisation and synthesis.India was selected as a case study as it represents a fertile context in which to explore community health networks given the diversity and density of community health NGOs and the dependency of the health care system on such providers. [adapted from author]

Unregulated and Unaccountable: How the Private Health Care Sector in India is Putting Women's Lives at Risk

This document argues that the gap left by the public health system combined with a government policy of proactively promoting the private sector has led to the proliferation of private health providers which are unregulated, unaccountable and untrained, causing a serious threat to women’s health. [adapted from author]

Strengthening Human Resources Information Systems: Experiences from Bihar and Jharkhand, India

This technical brief outlines a human resources information system pilot project in India and presents the key results from this effort. [adapted from author]

Contracting in Specialists for Emergency Obstetric Care: Does it Work in Rural India?

Contracting in private sector is promoted in developing countries facing human resources shortages as a challenge to reduce maternal mortality. This study explored provision, practice, performance, barriers to execution and views about contracting in specialists for emergency obstetric care in rural India. [from abstract]

Seven Years of the Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India: An Internal Evaluation

Beginning in 2001, the National Institute of Epidemiology admitted 80 trainees in its two-year field epidemiology training programme. This article evaluated the first seven years of the programme to identify strengths and weaknesses. [adapted from author]

Economic Evaluation of a Task-Shifting Intervention for Common Mental Disorders in India

The present study evaluates the cost–effectiveness and cost–utility of a trial task shifting approach to mental health services with the hope that the additional resources needed to train, pay and supervise the lay health workers used in the task-shifting approach to the primary care of common mental disorders would promote recovery and reduced disability in a more cost–effective manner than more conventional care. [adapted from author]

Assessing Community Health Workers' Performance Motivation: A Mixed-Methods Approach on India's Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) Programme

This study examined the performance motivation of community health workers and its determinants on India’s Accredited Social Health Activist program. [from abstract]

India's Health Workforce: Current Status and the Way Forward

This article compiles the information available on the health workforce of India from different sources and suggests a plan to address the shortages in different cadres. [from introduction]

Private Rural Health Providers in Haryana, India: Profiles and Practices

Despite a widespread public health system, the private healthcare sector is the major provider of health care in rural India. This study describes the profile and medical practices of private rural health providers in rural Haryana, India. [from abstract]

How Does Capacity Building of Health Managers Work? A Realist Evaluation Study Protocol

The authors present the protocol of an evaluation of a district-level capacity-building intervention to identify the determinants of performance of health workers in managerial positions and to understand how changes (if any) are brought about. The scope for applying realist evaluation to study human resource management interventions in health is also discussed. [from abstract]