Browse by Resource Type

This report focuses on the impact of human resource shortages witnessed by MSF teams in four southern African countries - Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa. While the focus is largely on nurses in rural areas, it should be acknowledged that health staff is lacking across the spectrum - from doctors to laboratory technicians to pharmacists - at all levels of care. In all these cases the need for access to ART, as well as other health needs, is outstripping human resource capacity. [from introduction]

This manual describes the purpose and processes for developing and using a system of Human Resources for Health (HRH) performance indicators in order to monitor the activities of a public sector health service. It is particularly aimed at enhancing the management process in developing countries and draws on experiences of pilot work. [from purpose]

This tool seeks to assist HRH workers and policy makers in a country think through, diagnose, and stimulate dialogue about their HRH challenges by responding to questions and reflecting on the policy implications of their answers.

Hospitals are workplaces in which HIV has double significance. Needlestick accidents link patients, healthcare workers and cleaning staff through the risk of occupational exposure to HIV. Additionally, concern over needlestick injuries may embody HIV stigma, discrimination and fear. This paper draws on qualitative research from a one-year case study at a large, private South African healthcare company that runs a number of hospitals across the country. Issues surrounding needlestick injuries were discussed with hospital managers, union members, infection-control nurses, health and safety representatives, HIV/AIDS counsellors, and general nursing staff. [from abstract]

The Nigerian national ARV treatment training programme was conceived to meet the human resource needs in hospitals providing ARV therapy. This paper reports on the evaluation of the training programme. It examines knowledge and skills gained, and utilization thereof. Recommendations are made for improved training effectiveness and for specific national policy on training, to meet the demand for scaling up therapy to the thousands who need ARV. [from abstract]

This handbook explains why a gender and human rights strategy is a better approach for achieving results in curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic It also shows you how to do it by providing the necessary information and techniques for incorporating gender and human rights into HIV/AIDS training. [from introduction]

This paper draws from research commissioned by the Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD). It provides a case study in the introduction of a new health care worker role into an already well established and ‘mature’ workforce configuration. It assesses the role of USA style physician assistants (PAs), as a precursor to planned ‘piloting’ of the PA role within the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland. The evidence base for the use of PAs is examined, and ways in which an established role in one health system (the USA) could be introduced to another country, where the role is ‘new’ and unfamiliar, are explored.

Although health workers are needed to do vaccinations, the role of human resources for health as a determinant of vaccination coverage at the population level has not been investigated. The author’s aim was to test whether health worker density was positively associated with childhood vaccination coverage in developing countries. [from summary]

As labor shortages intensify, succession planning and leadership development have become strategic initiatives requiring rigorous consideration. Traditional methods of replacing personnel will not accommodate the vacancies expected to plague healthcare organizations. Managers should focus on identifying potential gaps of key personnel and adapting programs to accommodate organizational need. Attention should be placed on capturing the intellectual capital existent in the organization and developing diverse groups of leadership candidates. [executive summary]

The aim of the study was to estimate the use of skilled attendants’ delivery services among users of antenatal care and the coverage of skilled attendants’ delivery services in the general population in Kikoneni location, Kenya. Antenatal care attendance, deliveries by skilled attendants, and the percentage of antenatal care attendees who delivered in a healthcare facility were assessed. Targeted programmatic efforts are necessary to increase skilled attendant-assisted births, with the ultimate goal of reducing maternal mortality. [from abstract]

This document provides a brief history of training of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), summary of evidence for effectiveness of TBA training, and consideration of the future role of trained TBAs in an environment that emphasizes transition to skilled birth attendance. [adapted from abstract]

Funding for scaling-up antiretroviral treatment (ART) in low-income countries has increased substantially, but the lack of human resources for health (HRH) is increasingly being identified as an important constraint for scaling-up ART. ART is labour intensive. Important reductions in doctor-time per patient can be realized during scaling-up. The doctor-based ART delivery model analysed seems adequate for Cambodia. However, for many districts in sub-Saharan Africa a doctor-based ART delivery model may be incompatible with their HRH constraints. [from abstract]

This paper describes the socio-economic profile of medical students in the 1998/99 academic year at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) Medical Faculty in Maputo. It aims to identify their social and geographical origins in addition to their expectations and difficulties regarding their education and professional future. [from abstract]

The purpose of this self-study manual is to provide accurate and accessible information on postpartum and newborn care to trainers of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and other community-level Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Workers.* The information can be integrated into existing training curricula and materials or it can be adapted into additional units for an ongoing program of instruction for TBAs. [from introduction]

Guidance for integrated postpartum care at the community/household level that reduces maternal and newborn mortality and encourages health in the immediate postpartum period is lacking. This report identifies and summarizes descriptive and research studies of existing community-based postpartum programs which provide counseling and services along with education on self-care. The literature review identified three models of community-base postpartum care: home visits by professional health care providers, home visits by community workers and home visits by community workers with referral or health facility support.

This report presents the child mortality impact of a trial of primary healthcare service delivery strategies in rural Ghana. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, underfive mortality in areas with village-based community-nurse services fell by 16 percent during the five years of program implementation compared with mortality before the intervention. [from abstract]

To improve birth spacing services in Cambodia, the development of the communication and counselling skills of all providers is critical. A a large part of this issue focuses on these skills. [editor’s description]

This assessment evalutes the RACHA program in Cambodia which was intended to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of the public and private sectors to deliver quality reproductive health and child survival services. The five technical intervention areas were birth spacing, STD/HIV prevention, safe motherhood, childhood diarrhoeal diseases and micronutrient deficiences. One of the key intermediate results identified within these areas was inproved human resource capacity to address these issues. [adapted from author]

This report describes an assessment of reproductive health needs in LAO People’s Democratic Republic. Chapter 2 focuses on birth spacing and the health worker’s role. There is a great demand for and interest in birth spacing among women and men in the community. Training of health providers on the different contraceptive methods seemed adequate where the program had been introduced, but client counselling (for new and repeated clients) was limited.

This report presents global data on the distribution of pharmacists, continuing professional development systems, and migration of pharmacists. [author’s description]

In order to resolve the crisis and address the key issues the Ministry of Health has developed a Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan, in consultation with key stakeholders. The strategies and activities outlined in the Plan attempt to address the concerns of all the stakeholders consulted and to provide a framework to guide and direct interventions, investments and decision making in the planning, management and development of human resources for health. [from foreword]

This presentation was given as part of the Christian Health Association’s Conference: CHAs at a Crossroad Towards Achieving Health Millennium Development Goals. It provides an excellent overview of the challenges of Malaria and HIV/AIDS ; discusses the human resource needs in light of these challenges; and how to build and maintain capacity. [from author’s description]

This paper focuses on the scheme by the Malawi Ministry of Health (MOH) to retain nurse tutors in collaboration with the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM). It chronicles the scheme’s successful elements for purposes of eventual replication, suggests how to address some of the challenges and identifies effective incentives, including salary supplements. [from executive summary]

In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Namibia’s public health sector is carrying out a comprehensive strategy to rapidly hire and deploy professional and non-professional health workers with the aim of providing comprehensive care, counseling and testing, as well as antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). [from executive summary]

The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) administers a home-based program in Uganda that gives people in poor and rural settings access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and services. The program’s innovation lies in shifting delivery of most clients’ follow-up activities at home to field officers, a new cadre of degree and diploma holders from the social sciences and education. Field officers ensure adherence to ART, refill clients’ medications and perform various activities, from voluntary counseling and testing to education to promoting family and community support. [from executive summary]

This manual presents Learning for Performance, a systematic instructional design process based on IntraHealth’s experience in designing reproductive health and HIV/AIDS training and performance improvement programs over the last 27 years in countries around the world. The manual and accompanying tools help connect learning to specific job responsibilities and competencies. To facilitate use and adaptation of the 14 Learning for Performance tools in the manual, Microsoft Word versions of the tools are available for downloading. [adapted from publisher]

This review and discussion paper highlights the important role that private practitioners are already playing in providing health services to children in many countries, and the far greater contribution that they could be called upon to make.

This document brings together the promising practices identified by the PVO community. Our definition of promising is purposefully broad to include the many ideas and experiences of different organizations that seem likely to combat HIV/AIDS successfully. [from foreword]

This paper examines the experience with using various incentives to motivate and retain community health workers (CHWs) serving primarily as volunteers in child health and nutrition programs in developing countries.

This paper aims to review current knowledge and experiences from ongoing efforts to monitor and evaluate capacity building interventions in the health sector in developing countries.