Senegal

Health workers’ knowledge of contraceptive side effects increased substantially after the refresher training. The mobile phone approach was convenient and flexible and did not disrupt routine service delivery. Clear limitations of the medium are participants can’t practice clinical skills or have interactive discussions. Also, some participants had trouble with network reception. [from abstract]

Contraceptive prevalence is very low in Senegal, particularly among young women. Greater knowledge is needed about the barriers young women face to using contraceptives, including barriers imposed by health providers. [from abstract]

This article assesses the effect of a trial multifaceted intervention to promote maternity death reviews and onsite training for health workers in emergency obstetric care in referral hospitals with high maternal mortality rates in Senegal and Mali. [adapted from summary]

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 survey of the Senegalese supply chain workforce was conducted using the “Human Resources Capacity for Public Health Supply Chain Management Assessment Guide” and evaluates the supply chain organization and personnel distribution, champion systems, policies and plans, workforce development, workforce efficiency, and professionalization efforts in the public health supply chain. [adapted from author]

Many health professionals and policymakers in Africa lack access to the information needed to make evidence-based decisions for effective health care. This study collected qualitative data from 75 key informants and members of two focus groups in Senegal on various aspects of health information needs, particularly in family planning and reproductive health, including information sources, strategies, and systems to transfer and share information; and barriers to accessing, sharing, and using health information. [from abstract]

A better understanding of how public sector midwives in Senegal are experiencing their work and how it is affecting them is needed in order to better address their needs and incite them to remain in their posts. This study aims to explore their job satisfaction and its effects on their burnout, intention to quit and professional mobility. [from abstract]

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.

This article outlines the introduction of a special contracting system to recruit health workers to improve the posting, recruitment and retention of health workers in rural and remote areas. [adapted from abstract]

This article discusses the issues facing the district training program for emergency obstetric surgery teams in Senegal. [adapted from abstract]

In resource-poor settings, the facility-based maternal death review or audit is one of the most promising strategies to improve health service performance. We aim to explore and describe health workers’ perceptions of facility-based maternal death reviews and to identify barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of this approach in pilot health facilities of Senegal. [from abstract]

This report is the result of a rapid assessment conducted to better understand the current and potential market for family planning products and services in the private health sector in Senegal, as well as to provide recommendations to strengthen the private health sector. [adapted from executive summary]

In developing countries, postabortion care (PAC) programs are frequently available only in urban or regional health facilities, placing rural women at greater risk for mortality and morbidity from complications because they lack access to services. This technical brief evaluates efforts to decentralize PAC activities in Senegal and Tanzania that show PAC can be safely and successfully decentralized with services capably provided by mid-level personnel in health centers, dispensaries, and some health posts when providers are trained and supervised and equipment and supplies are available.

In Senegal, traditional supervision often focuses more on collection of service statistics than on evaluation of service quality. This approach yields limited information on quality of care and does little to improve providers’ competence. In response to this challenge, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) has implemented a program of formative supervision. This multifaceted, problem-solving approach collects data on quality of care, improves technical competence, and engages the community in improving reproductive health care. [abstract]

This report presents findings of a study on the migration of health professionals in Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The report provides detailed information about migration patterns and numbers, reasons for migration, effects on the quality of health care and the policies being undertaken in the respective countries to reduce outward migration. [from executive summary]