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Communities' Awareness, Perception and Participation in the Community-Based Medical Education of the University of Maiduguri

The overall objective of community-based medical education (CBME) is to produce highly qualified doctors in sufficient numbers to meet the health needs of the nation at community and hospital levels. In the current program, medical students undertake an eight-week residential posting in their final year. The objective of this study was to assess the communities’ awareness, perception and participation in the CBME program. [adapted from introduction]

Effectiveness of a Training Programme for Primary Care Physicians Directed at the Enhancement of their Psychiatric Knowledge in Saudi Arabia

A substantial number of patients with psychiatric disorders consult primary care physicians for comprehensive health care; however, the diagnosis and effective treatment of psychiatric disorders are deficient in primary health care. The aim of this intervention study is to assess the pre- and post-psychiatric training knowledge of primary care physicians. [from abstract]

Acting Now to Overcome Tanzania's Greatest Health Challenge: Addressing the Gap in Human Resources for Health

The focus of McKinsey’s research effort is on the HRH constraint, faced by many developing countries, in absorbing development aid and scaling up urgently needed health programs. HRH in this context is defined as the health workers at the front line of healthcare service delivery. The field work necessary to diagnose the problem and identify possible solutions has been initiated in Tanzania. We believe these findings, accounting for certain differences, will be broadly applicable to several developing countries. [from author]

Improving Health Worker Performance: in Search of Promising Practices

This report was commissioned to describe experiences and to provide lessons learnt with respect to interventions to retain staff and improve their productivity, competence and responsiveness. [from summary]

Taking the Next Step: Options and Support for a Pan-Canadian, Multi-Professional HHR Planning Mechanism

This study proposes potential options for creating a pan-Canadian HHR planning mechanism or mechanisms to better serve the process of coordinated HHR planning across jurisdictions and among multiple professions. The second goal is to assess the current level of support among both government actors at the federal, provincial and territorial levels and stakeholder organizations for creating a pan-Canadian HHR planning. The study examines the current HHR planning infrastructure in the country, recent international developments in HHR planning and the attitudes of key informants in governmental and non-governmental communities.

Challenges and Successes in Family Planning in Afghanistan

Although misconceptions about family planning and cultural factors such as son preference presented some obstacles to progress, [two MSH] projects found that religion in Afghanistan is not a barrier to expanding family planning services. It was critical to engage clinicians and communities in culturally sensitive ways. Emphasizing the use of birth spacing to protect the health of mothers and children was especially effective. Activities to empower women

International Opportunities in Medical Education

The purpose of this electronic resource is to make available information about the extent and nature of international opportunities for medical students, residents, and faculty. It provides information about which schools offer programs, how these are funded, and in which geographical regions they occur. In many cases, individual schools provide further information about their programs on their own websites. [publisher’s description]

International Medical Education Directory

The International Medical Education Directory (IMED) provides an accurate and up-to-date resource of information about international medical schools that are recognized by the appropriate government agency in the countries where the medical schools are located. The agency responsible for this recognition in most countries is the Ministry of Health. Medical schools that are recognized by the appropriate agencies in their respective countries are listed in the International Medical Education Directory. [publisher’s description]

Community-Based Distribution of Depo-Provera: Evidence of Success in the African Context

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, a significant portion of the population lives in rural areas, leaving many women with limited access to clinic-based family planning services. Thus CBD of contraceptives remains an important service delivery mechanism in this region. The primary aim of this study was to assess the safety, quality, and feasibility of Depo-Provera provision by community reproductive health workers.

Expanding the Role of Community Based Workers and Advocates in Safe Motherhood

Under the ENABLE Safe Motherhood Core Initiative, CEDPA/India collaborated with the Community Aid and Sponsorship Program on the Safe Motherhood Initiative to reduce maternal death by showing women, their families and their communities how to prepare for a safe delivery, to identify pregnancy-related complications at their onset, and to seek medical help immediately. [publisher’s description]

Atlas: Nurses in Mental Health 2007

Mental health care is an essential but often forgotten component of health care. Nurses are core health-care providers and they need to be able to contribute effectively to mental health care. [This document] presents results of a global survey on the availability, education, training and role of nurses in mental health care. [from foreword]

Infectious Disease Surveillance (IDS) in Tanzania

In Tanzania, the PHRplus project developed and tested a set of training materials and tools designed to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system. All of the tools were implemented in twelve project districts in eight regions of the country. The tools can be adapted for use in other countries and include job aids for district training of trainers, facility training of trainers, district and facility level IDSR training materials and other supporting training tools. [adapted from publisher]

Collaboration Between Open Universities in the Commonwealth: Successful Production of the First Ever Sri Lankan Nursing Graduates at the Open University of Sri Lanka by Distance Education

This paper discusses a collaborative effort between two universities in Sri Lanka and Canada to create a distance education program to train nurses in Sri Lanka.

Competence of Maternal and Child Health Clinic Workers in Detecting Malnutrition in Somalia

The MCH clinic workers in Somalia receive formal and in-service training to perform their professional duties. Their competence in the field was never examined. This study assessed their competencies in detecting malnourished children 5 years and below in Beledweyne. [from abstract]

Assessing Clinical Skills: Standard Setting in the Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE)

Family Medicine training and assessment is becoming more formalized and developed in South Africa. Assessment of competency in relation to clinical skills can involve observation in the clinical setting, but is more usually assessed in an examination. Summative assessment of family physician’s clinical skills now usually includes an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Standardisation of the OSCE is required to define the pass mark above which a candidate performs at the level expected of a family physician. [from abstract]

Traditional Health Practitioner and the Scientist: Bridging the Gap in Contemporary Health Research in Tanzania

This paper discusses global, regional and national perspectives of traditional medicine development and efforts that have been directed towards bridging the gap between traditional health practitioners and scientists/biomedical heath practitioners in contemporary health research in Tanzania. [from abstract]

Human Resources for Health Policy in Sierra Leone for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation

This HRH policy document addresses the production and utilization of Human Resources within the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone. It also responds to the contemporary challenges and developments including the exodus of human resources and advancement in technology. This policy intends to regulate and direct planning, production, management, utilization and monitoring of HR within the health sector. [from foreword]

Sierra Leone Human Resource for Health Development Plan 2006-2010

The shortfall of health personnel continues to represent one of the major constraints to the development of health services and access to basic health care in Sierra Leone. The plan contains an analysis of the current situation with a focus on the distribution of Health Personnel, the current stock, wastage, outputs from training schools, dropout rates and human resources policies currently obtained in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. It also projects future requirements based on the recommended establishment. [from preface]

Zanzibar Health Care Worker Productivity Study: Preliminary Study Findings

This report summarizes the findings and conclusions of [a baseline study and a three-day stakeholder workshop on productivity]. Specifically, we present the baseline study findings, identify areas where current productivity falls short of desired levels, consider the root causes of identified productivity gaps and offer practical recommendations for feasible management interventions to improve productivity. We conclude with a short-term action plan for moving forward with implementation activities. [from introduction]

African Regional Health Report: the Health of the People

This report provides an overview of the public health situation across the 46 Member States of the African Region of the World Health Organization. The report charts progress made to date in fighting disease and promoting health in the African Region. It reviews the success stories and looks at areas where more efforts are needed to improve people’s health. [author’s description] Chapter 6 includes a discussion of the human resources for health crisis and approaches to filling the gap as well as health information systems.

Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers

The practical, up-to-date guidance in this new handbook will help to improve the quality of family planning services and maximize people’s access to them. It can help family planning providers to assist clients choosing a family planning method, to support effective use, and to solve clients’ problems. [from foreword]

Family Planning Choices for Women with HIV

Women with HIV have much the same reasons to have children or to prevent pregnancy as everyone else, but they have important additional issues to consider. These women’s health care providers have the responsibility to help them make well-informed and well-considered choices and carry out their decisions with the least risk.

Practice to Policy: Global Perspectives in Nursing: Report of the 5th International Conference

This report summarizes the speeches and discussions from the Practice to Policy: Global Perspectives in Nursing conference in 2006. Both healthcare professionals and th system are faced with a number of ongoing challenges, which may require a shift in organizational policy and can affect the way nurses practice. Nurses are and integral part of the healthcare system and play a key role in influencing these changes. Nurses’ voices need to be heard, and they must be able to articulate what they do.

Training Modules for the Syndromic Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections

This guide is intended for people responsible for in-service training at any first-level health facility dedicated to the care of persons with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It aims to equip the user with the skills and information needed to train all relevant clinicians and service providers in the management of persons with STIs, including syndromic management. It also suggests a number of ways the training could be adapted to respond best to local needs. It provides practical advice and information to help you plan and execute the training and assess outcomes effectively

Effective Training in Reproductive Health: Course Design and Delivery Trainer's Manual

This manual is designed to be a resource for trainers who lead training-of-trainers courses in the field of reproductive health. It is designed to provide trainers with all of the instructions and materials they need to help learners strengthen their training, communication and facilitation knowledge and skills, and to enable them to plan and implement more effective training courses. [author’s description]

Training of Trainers Module: Women's Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle and in the Context of HIV and AIDS

This module is intended to equip instructors with basic theory to train health workers in a life cycle approach to women’s nutrition. Women’s nutrition and care in the context of HIV and AIDS is integrated into the module. Health workers will apply the knowledge and skills in negotiation and interpersonal communication to help mothers and caregivers care for their own nutritional needs and feed their infants and young children optimally. [publisher’s description]

Distance Education in Health and Environmental Health: an Option - Now Let's Strengthen Its Viability

The experience of the Training in Health and Environmental Health in the Caribbean Community project has demonstrated that distance education techniques is an effective medium through which participants in more than eleven countries can be brought together to be educated on topics that are significant to both the region and to individual countries. This paper examines the means through which individuals are educated and meaningful communication among them facilitated.

Barriers to Training Family Physicians in the Caribbean: Distance Education as a Promising Prescription

The peculiarities of the scattered small states of the Caribbean region call for a model of training practitioners that is effective, relevant and sustainable. Distance education (DE) as an approach offers advantages that meet some of the challenges inherent in training family physicians for the region. This paper examines some of these challenges and shows where DE is being used to structure delivery of the programme. In particular, the need for context-specific training, managing time strictures and the cost issues of training are discussed. [from abstract]

Model of ODL to Address Educational Needs of Health Workers in Africa

Health workers attending overseas universities may be less likely to return home. One response is to improve course provision and professional updating opportunities in-country. Leeds Metropolitan University, with funding from the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission under their distance learning initiative, runs a tailor-made MSc Public Health (Environmental Health and Health Promotion) in Zambia, for nurse tutors, clinical officers and environmental health workers. Using locally relevant curricula, with community-based, student centred, problem-solving approaches, retention may be improved. This paper will discuss how the course is delivered in Zambia, how the partnership developed such as to enable effective delivery of the course, and how sustainable learning can be achieved in a developing country in partnership with a UK University. [from abstract]

Reviewing and Revising a Training Course

This tool provides a process for periodically reviewing and revising training sessions or courses in a systematic manner. [author’s description]