Sub-Saharan Africa

This study provided an opportunity to assess the influence of health workers’ attitude to the usage of new malaria treatment recommendations. Overall, results showed variations in health workers attitudes and practices regarding new treatment recommendations in terms of type of health facility, ownership and type of health worker at six months post changes and two years later. [from author]

This study sought to determine appropriateness of treatment of common childhood illnesses at private sector drug shops in two rural districts of Uganda. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this was to describe the current situation of implementing task shifting in the context of acute shortages of health workers and, secondly, and to provide a descriptive account of the potential opportunities or benefits and the likely challenges which might ensue as a result of implementing task shifting. [adapted from abstract]

Whether you are a doctor, a nurse, an allied health professional or a medical librarian, this manual provides answers to the most crucial questions that arise while searching for health information. The manual covers topics such as: available information sources, tools and techniques for searching the web, intellectual property rights, managing and storing information, and evaluating information for accuracy. The resource also includes video guides for each module.[adapted from author]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of health workers after decentralisation of the health services in Uganda in order to identify and suggest possible areas for improvement. [from abstract]

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

This article outlines the need for and different types of models for increasing the health workforce in South Africa to create a stable human resource base in the health sector. [adapted from author]

The simulated client (SC) method for evaluating health worker performance utilizes surveyors who pose as patients to make surreptitious observations during consultations. During a trial that evaluated a quality improvement intervention in Benin, the authors conducted an SC survey with adult caretakers as surveyors and real children to evaluate the feasibility of this approach for evaluating health worker performance for pediatric illnesses. [adapted from abstract]

Ethiopia has been deploying specially trained cadres of community based health workers named health extension workers. This study investigates the role of these these community health workers in improving utilization of maternal health services. [adapted from abstract]

The objective of this study was to develop a common instrument to monitor any changes in maternal and neonatal health care provider motivation resulting from the introduction of pilot interventions in rural, primary level facilities in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania. [from abstract]

This presentation from the Irish Forum for Global Health Conference provides a background on development of observatories, and outlines the achievements, challenges and prospects of the HRH observatory in Sudan. [adapted from author]

The objectives of the study reported in this article were to: estimate the technical and scale efficiency of national health systems (NHS) in utilizing human resources for health in African continent to produce various ultimate health outputs; identify the magnitudes of inefficiencies in the use of human resources for health in individual countries; identify the best performer NHS whose practice could be emulated by others; and highlight the implications for policy to health sector policy-makers. [from author]

This report contains the proceedings of a meeting of 18 francophone and Spanish-speaking countries in Africa focusing on the HRH crisis. It outlines common challenges faced by the countries concerned and provides suggestions on the role of regional entities and development partners. [from publisher]

Reviewing the status of human resources for health research (HRHR) in Africa, the authors assert that it consists of uncoordinated, small-scale activities, primarily driven from outside Africa. This article also presents examples of ongoing HRHR capacity building initiatives in Africa and a simple model to help countries plan and strategise a comprehensive approach to research capacity strengthening. [adapted from abstract]

This presentation outlines the need for and way forward to building human resources for health research capacity for system strengthening in Africa.

Health professionals that treat mental health in Ghana, such as community nurses and pharmacists, lack proper training but have become the default practitioners in dealing with illnesses. This brief explores the shortcomings of Ghana’s mental health policies, and highlights the implications and outcomes for the country’s population. [adapted from author]

This brief outlines the issues surrounding constraints in the health workforce which have emerged as a key obstacle to scaling-up access to prevention and treatment for the 5.7 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. [adapted from summary]

Conseil national du sida wished to delve further into the human resources crisis in Southern countries. It therefore sought to identify the main causes and determining factors behind the said crisis and to put forth various strategies in an attempt to turn that trend around. [from author]

The lack of human resources in the health sector in developing countries is not new. The shortage became a crisis few years after the Millenium Declaration as countries found it difficult to meet the Millennium Development Goals owing to the shortage of health workers.­ The causes of the shortage are multiple and complex, involving management, training and staff distribution issues, as well as migration of workers from the public sector to the private sector, from rural areas to the cities and from one country to another. [from abstract]

Uganda has a severe health worker shortage and a high demand for health care services. This study aimed to assess the policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda. [from abstract]

This paper examines the particular issues of self-testing for HIV among health workers in sub-Saharan Africa, where high levels of interest and motivation for self-testing among health workers has been reported and informal self-testing already practiced. [from summary]

This article reviews findings on the types of HIV/AIDS services provided by the private health sector in developing countries and elaborates on the role of private providers of HIV services in Ethiopia. [from abstract]

This document is an evaluation of the implementation of a tool to assist in supervision, assessment and creation of action plans for quality improvement in facilities where TB is diagnosed and treated. [adapated from introduction]

In Senegal, an pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of a malaria treatment program in remote villages by volunteer home care providers. This paper reports the results of the scale-up in the targeted communities and the impact of the strategy on malaria in the formal health sector. [adapted from abstract]

This study sought to prove that mentoring plays an important role in professional nurse training and support and that recall of lost-to-follow-up patients is feasible and effective in improving ART services in rural settings. [adapted from author]

A discrete choice experiment was used to test how nurses and certified midwives in Liberia would respond to alternative policies being considered by the ministry of health and social welfare to predict the share of nurses and certified midwives who would accept a job in a rural area under different schemes. [from abstract]

The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of experiential factors across Ghanaian medical students’ lifespans on intent to practice in a rural area and intent to emigrate. [from abstract]

Because programming for home-based HIV testing and counselling (HBHTC) services poses a series of practical challenges with design, cost, human resource, and logistical implications, the purpose of this handbook is to provide practical guidance on ways to address these challenges and to outline some of the key considerations when planning, implementing, and monitoring HBHTC. [from author]

The current study compared the effectiveness of trained health surveillance assistants versus trained volunteer key informants in identifying blind children in southern Malawi. [from abstract]

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.