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This short course provides an overview of the primary issues facing human resources in the global health sector.

This handbook brings together effective practices in leadership, management, and governance. It includes effective practices in key management systems that all work together to improve health. [from preface]

There is not only a lack of human resources for health in Hungary, but significant inequalities are widespread, including in geographical distribution. This report, based on research carried out in 2008, deals with the willingness of young doctors to work outside Budapest. [adapted from abstract]

This paper looks at the potential for decentralization to lead to better health workforce recruitment, performance and retention in rural areas through the creation of additional revenue for the health sector; better use of existing financial resources; and creation of financial incentives for health workers. [from introduction]

Developing a sufficient and sustainable rural physician workforce requires commitment and cooperation from communities, governments and medical schools. The author argues that medical education can play an important role in the recruitment and retention of rural physicians. [adapted from author]

Retaining physicians in remote settings can be challenging owing to the heavy workload and harsh environmental conditions and to the lack of opportunities for professional development. This study evaluated corrective measure to address the dearth of physicians in the north of Norway. [adapted from abstract]

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 paper builds on earlier work assessing the evidence on effectiveness of interventions to increase access to health workers in rural and remote areas - focusing mainly on studies that evaluated interventions and their impact on the health workforce and health systems performance. [adapted from introduction]

This paper explores a long-standing strategy to attract and retain doctors in rural areas in Chile: the Rural Practitioner Programme. The objectives of the study are to describe this programme for rural doctors (médicos generales de zona), to characterize its multidimensional set of incentives and to carry out a preliminary evaluation of programme outcomes. [from introduction]

This study compiled information on the numbers and types of health worker compulsory service programs in WHO countries.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to guide managers, policy-makers and evaluators in the assessment of interventions to increase access to health workers in underserved areas. The framework aims to support all stages of policy development. [from introduction]

The objective of this study was to model the relative effectiveness of different policy interventions on the recruitment of nurses to rural areas in three different countries. [from introduction]

This paper examines the extent to which health workers differ in their willingness to work in rural areas and the reasons for these differences, based on the data collected in Rwanda analysed individually and in combination with data from Ethiopia. [from introduction]

This paper examines the job attributes that influence the stated preferences of fourth year medical students in Ghana for rural deprived area postings. [adapted from author]

The author outlines the state of the nursing health workforce shortage in the developing world, its causes and impacts.

This article outlines the Latin American Medical School program model which trains young people from developing countries and sends them home as doctors with a pledge to practise in underserved areas. [adapted from author]

This article discusses the issue of maldistribution, which is arguably the most critical workforce challenge, not only for achieving universal coverage but also for addressing inextricably linked workforce problems such as shortages and skill imbalances. In many countries, overall shortages are exacerbated, indeed even caused, by severe maldistribution. [adapted from author]

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]

Although there is a general acceptance of pharmacist prescribing in international pharmacy literature, this article investigates the implementation of pharmacist prescribing models internationally. [adapted from introduction]

This article outlines a project that deployed short videos on mobile phones designed to motivate health workers and persuade pregnant village women to use health services. The project also asked health workers to record their own videos. The results show evidence that the creation and use of videos helped engage village women in dialogue, showed positive effects toward health worker motivation and learning, and motivated key community influencers to participate in promoting the health workers. [adapted from abstract]

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 document describes an approach to developing competencies that can guide interprofessional education and collaborative practice for all professions in a variety of contexts and is the first attempt to develop a Canadian model of interprofessional competencies that is applicable to all health professions. [from author]

Evidence indicates that lack of communication and collaboration between health providers can seriously harm patients. To solve these issues, we need to change how health services are delivered and how providers interact with each other. This project examined interprofessional interventions and how they impact the health workforce and workplace quality. [adapted from summary]

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]

This short documentary film features struggles of health workers in both developed and developing countries. The film portrays a real-life journey of Dr Brian Kubwalo, a Malawian doctor working in Manchester, UK, who embarks on a personal quest to find out whether he should go back to his native Malawi, where his skills are sorely missed, or stay in Manchester, where he can provide better future for his children. [from publisher]

This policy brief provides new insights on recent migration trends for doctors and nurses up to 2008, and discusses the main causes and consequences for destination and origin countries. It presents possible policy responses stressing the importance of international co-operation to address the worldwide scarcity of health workers. [from author]

This study aimed to assess patient satisfaction with health care provider interactions and its influencing factors among out-patients at health centers in West Shoa, Central Ethiopia. [from abstract]

To confront the common problems in the management and development of human resources for health, the ministry has created policy guidelines for HRH and is defining the competency profiles of health personnel at different levels. This document outlines the process and lessons learned. [adapted from author]

Ethiopia’s health extension workers (HEW) deliver preventive interventions and treat childhood diarrhea and malaria, but not pneumonia. Most of Ethiopia’s annual estimated 4 million childhood pneumonia cases go untreated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of volunteers in providing community case management for diarrhea, fever and pneumonia in a pre-HEW setting in Ethipia. [adapted from abstract]