Kenya

This project brief describes the HRH challenges in Kenya, and the work being done to strengthen HRH policies and practices, build the knowledge and skills of health workers, and improve workforce performance systems. [adapted from author]

Two studies were conducted to assess modes of male circumcision (MC) service delivery to support the scale-up of MC for HIV prevention in Kenya in the public sector. Both studies examined clinical outcomes of and client satisfaction for MC services provided through task shifting performed by nonphysician clinician and by trained itinerant clinical officers. [adapted from author]

This report details an eLearning intervention for nurses in Kenya to improve the standards of nursing care by equipping enrolled nurses with the skills to manage new and re-emerging diseases, address the shortage of qualified nurses in Kenya, improve quality of care and achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals. [adapted from author]

To help support the introduction of adult maled circumcision (MC) for HIV prevention in Kenya, this study was conducted to gather information about the current MC policy and program environment regarding HRH planning to support adult MC scale-up in four districts in Kenya. [from author]

This paper discusses the background of HRH shortages in the listed countries, as well as plans for steps to resolve the issue. [from publisher]

This article set out to examine the human resource policy implications of scaling up HIV testing and counselling in Kenya and to analyse the resultant policy against a recognised theoretical framework of health policy reform. [from abstract]

This report outlines a sustainable cascade training approach to train a subset of the doctors, nurses, and clinical officers who provide long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PM) to serve as district-level LA/PM trainers. These trainers trained other doctors, nurses, and clinical officers in their districts to offer LA/PMs.

This article explores the nature and depth of managerial engagement of health facility committees at the facility level in two rural districts in Kenya, and how this has contributed to community accountability. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to assess whether the development and implementation of a community health worker project in rural Kenya was associated with an increase in knowledge about malaria and the use of insecticide-treated nets in children under five years of age. [from abstract]

This analysis seeks to quantify differences in the quality of family planning (FP) services at public and private providers in three representative sub-Saharan African countries (Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana), to assess how these quality differentials impact upon FP clients’ satisfaction, and to suggest how quality improvements can improve contraceptive continuation rates.

This study assessed whether text-message reminders sent to health workers’ mobile phones could improve and maintain their adherence to treatment guidelines for outpatient paediatric malaria in Kenya. [from summary]

This pilot-test evaluation looked at feasibility as well as acceptability of structured on the job training as an intervention to improve the performance of providers. [from author]

This study in western Kenya aimed to evaluate the impact of providing subsidized artemether–lumefantrine, an antimalarial treatment, for febrile children aged 3–59 months through retail providers. [adapted from abstract]

This study aimed at establishing delivery practices among selected mothers seeking child welfare services at selected health facilities in Nyandarua South district, Kenya, to determine the proportions of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants as well the factors influencing the mothers’ choices. [from introduction]

The aim of this study was to determine the use of different types of HIV testing services and to investigate perceptions and experiences of these services with a particular emphasis on the provider initiated testing in three selected districts in Kenya, Tanzania, and, Zambia.

This report evaluates what kind of health care and health education were still being promoted five years after the Kisumu Primary Health Care project had ended, and what had happened to all the voluntary health workers that had been trained as part of the project’s focus on community health workers and community involvement in service delivery. [adapted from author]

Kenya has bold plans for scaling up priority interventions nationwide, but faces major human resource challenges, with a lack of skilled workers especially in the most disadvantaged rural areas. This study investigated reasons for poor recruitment and retention in rural areas and potential policy interventions through quantitative and qualitative data collection with nursing trainees. [adapted from abstract]

This article focuses on an unexpected finding of a research project which explored the experience of being a traditional midwife. The study found that traditional midwives often perceive skilled (professional) birth attendants to be abusive of both them and the women who are transferred to hospital for emergency obstetric care. [from abstract]

This article evaluates an initiative launched in Kenya to improve malaria case-management through enhanced in-service training and provision of job aids. [from abstract]

Home Management of Malaria (HMM) is a strategy to improve acces to appropriate and effective malaria treatment in the community or home through early recognition of malaria symptoms and prompt treatment. To do this, volunteer members of the communities are trained to recognize fever, to administer treatment to children under five years of age when they find it, and to advise on follow-up treatment and prevention. They are monitored by a trained member of staff, such as a public health officer.

The HRH country profiles serve as a tool for systematically presenting the HRH situation, policies and management. They are expected to help to monitor trends, generate regional HRH overviews, provide comparable data between countries and identify points for focused action in countries. They will also serve for a comparison of countries’ responses to similar HRH challenges.

In Kenya, several medical and pharmacy schools have taken fresh approaches to improving clinical pharmacy. By collaborating and working with national and international partners, they are providing unique pharmacy services to thousands of patients. [adapted from author]

Organizational factors are considered to be an important influence on health workers’ uptake of interventions that improve their practices. These are additionally influenced by factors operating at individual and broader health system levels. This article sought to explore contextual influences on worker motivation, a factor that may modify the effect of an intervention aimed at changing clinical practices in Kenyan hospitals. [from abstract]

This policy brief highlights results from unannounced visits made to a sample of public health facilities in Machakos District with the intention of documenting the proportion of critical health care workers who were absent from their stations of operation. It also presents policy options to address the problem of absenteeism of critical health providers in the health sector. [from author]

This report aims to outline the composition of the nursing workforce in Kenya, including recent trends and dynamics, and describes the involvement of stakeholders, both within and beyond Kenya, in the development of nursing and the nursing workforce. [from summary]

A study across three countries to identify policies which would help recruit and retain health workers in rural areas revealed that there is a danger in one size fits all recommendations when it comes to designing human resource policies. Results also show that there is room for both financial and non-financial incentives in human resource interventions in developing countries. [from author]

The critical shortage of qualified health professionals, especially in the developing world, leaves patients without access to care for even the most basic health issues. In this video, created by the Health Rights Advocacy Forum (HERAF) and PHR, health workers at Mbagathi District Hospital in Kenya talk about how they rise to the challenges they face every day. [from author]

This study presents evaluation findings of two different programs targeting private medicine retailers for malaria control in Kenya. Key components of this evaluation were measurement of program performance, including coverage, knowledge, practices, and utilization based on spatial analysis. [from abstract]

This evaluation presents the results of a Kenyan emergency hiring plan (EHP) to quickly hire, train and deploy workers to high-need areas. The report presents the tracked hiring, training and deployment of all new hires compared to identified gaps. It also contains facility statistics and new hire and coworker feedback in a sample of ten facilities at baseline and every six months for period of three years. [adapted from summary]

The objective of this study was to field test tools designed to measure stigma and discrimination against patient with HIV/AIDS in the Kenyan context, focusing on facilities and providers of health services. [adapted from summary]