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What Does It Take to Make Integrated Care Work?

Around the world, only a few health care providers deliver integrated care effectively. Their experiences offer useful lessons for organizations that want to pilot integrated-care programs. [from author]

Developing Counseling skills through Pre-Recorded Videos and Role Play: a Pre- and Post-Intervention Study in a Pakistani Medical School

Interactive methods like role play, recorded video scenarios and objective structured clinical exam are being regularly used to teach and assess communication skills of medical students in the western world. In developing countries however, they are still in the preliminary phases of execution in most institutes. Our study was conducted in a naive under resourced setup to assess the impact of such teaching methodologies on the counseling skills of medical students. [from abstract]

Engaging the Private Sector to Improve Access to Quality Care: Public Ends Private Means

This brief outlines the barriers to overcome to improve the functioning of the private health sector, the impact, the pros and cons of engaging the privat sector, myths of using provate providers and policy options. [adapted from author]

Evaluating Different Dimensions of Programme Effectiveness for Private Medicine Retailer Malaria Control Interventions in Kenya

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]

Comparative Evaluation of the Effect of Internet-Based CME Delivery Format on Satisfaction, Knowledge and Confidence

The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative evaluation of two internet-based continuing medical education delivery formats and the effect on satisfaction, knowledge and confidence outcomes. [from abstract]

Impact of Provider-Initiated (Opt-Out) HIV Testing and Counseling of Patients with Sexually Transmitted Infection in Cape Town, South Africa: a Controlled Trial

This study evaluated whether the provider-initiated HIV testing and counseling approach increased HIV testing amongst patients with a new episode of sexually transmitted infection, as compared to standard voluntary counseling and testing at the primary care level in South Africa, a high prevalence and low resource setting. [from abstract]

Antiretroviral Treatment Outcomes from a Nurse-Driven, Community-Supported HIV/AIDS Treatment Programme in Rural Lesotho: Observational Cohort Assessment at Two Years

This successful program highlights how improving HIV care strengthened the primary health care system and validates several critical areas for task shifting that are being considered by other countries in the region, including nurse-driven ART for adults and children, and lay counsellor supported testing and counselling, adherence and case management. [from abstract]

Effect of a Peer-Educational Intervention on Provider Knowledge and Reported Performance in Family Planning Services: a Cluster Randomized Trial

This study evaluated the effect of an educational program including peer discussions on the providers’ knowledge and reported performance in family planning services. [from abstract]

Internet-Based Medical Education: a Realist Review of What Works, for Whom and in What Circumstances

This article aims to produce theory driven criteria to guide the development and evaluation of internet-based medical courses. [from abstract]

Can Developing Countries Achieve Adequate Improvements in Child Health Outcomes without Engaging the Private Sector?

This article reviews the available evidence on private sector utilization and quality of care. It provides a framework for analysing the private sector’s influence on child health outcomes. [from abstract]

Effects of Computerized Clinical Decision Support Systems on Practitioner Performance and Patient Outcomes: Methods of a Decision-Maker-Researcher Partnership Systematic Review

The objective of this research was to form a partnership of healthcare providers, managers, and researchers to review randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of computerized decision support for six clinical application areas: primary preventive care, therapeutic drug monitoring and dosing, drug prescribing, chronic disease management, diagnostic test ordering and interpretation, and acute care management; and to identify study characteristics that predict benefit. [from abstract]

Financing and Economic Aspects of Health Workforce Scale-Up and Improvement: Framework Paper

This paper identifies key considerations for countries and policymakers planning the financing of their health workforce, and is based on an extensive review and synthesis of the literature, research findings, and experience on the financing and economic aspects of health workforce scale-up and improvement. [from author]

What Countries Can Do Now: Twenty-Nine Actions to Scale-Up and Improve the Health Workforce

This document explains seven financing and economic issues that matter for health workforce scale-up and financing. It then states twenty-nine actions that policy-makers could take right away to address the issues, independent of any long-term HRH interventions in progress. [from introduction]

Realist Evaluation of the Management of a Well-Performing Regional Hospital in Ghana

This article uses the realist evaluation method to determine the effect of human resource management on hospital performance using a regional facility in Ghana.

Implementation of the Learning for Performance Approach at the Gao Nursing School in Mali: Final Report

This report documents the efficiency of the Learning for Performance approach in the implementation of new pre-service reproductive health/family planning and child health training modules aimed at local health technicians working in Northern Mali. [adapted from introduction]

Implementation of the Learning for Performance Approach in Rwanda: Final Report

The Capacity Project used the Learning for Performance (LFP) approach to develop the family planning (FP), HIV/AIDS and gender components included in the competency-based A1 nursing and midwifery pre-service curricula. LFP was also used to adapt the Rwanda national FP curriculum to an on-the-job training approach. This study documents the implementation of the and the lessons learned from its application in preservice education and in-service training in Rwanda. [from summary]

Final Feasibility Evaluation for No-Scalpel Vasectomy in Rwanda

In direct response to the country’s human resources for health needs, the Capacity Project helped to develop the capacity of the district hospital clinical workforce to expand access to a full range of quality family planning methods through a pilot vasectomy in-service training program for physicians and nurses at two district hospitals. [adapted from introduction]

Evaluation of a Rapid Workforce Expansion Strategy: the Kenya Emergency Hiring Plan

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]

Evaluation of the Capacity Project's Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) Strengthening Process in Swaziland, Uganda and Rwanda

The Capacity Project worked to strengthen HRIS in several low-resource countries to assist decision-makers and human resources managers in identifying and responding to critical gaps in HRH. The findings and recommendations in this report cover the Capacity Project’s implementation of HRIS in Swaziland, Rwanda and Uganda. [from summary]

Updating and Disseminating Guidelines for Family Planning and Reproductive Health: the Role of Health Systems Strengthening

This technical brief describes several approaches used to achieve needed changes in reproductive health service delivery practice, and provides recommendations for actions at the local level. [from introduction]

Task Shifting for Scale-up of HIV Care: Evaluation of Nurse-Centered Antiretroviral Treatment at Rural Health Centers in Rwanda

In September 2005, a pilot program of nurse-centered antiretroviral treatment (ART) prescription was launched in three rural primary health centers in Rwanda. We retrospectively evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of this task-shifting model using descriptive data. [from abstract]

Role of Nonphysician Clinicians in the Rapid Expansion of HIV Care in Mozambique

In Mozambique, a country with a high HIV burden and a staggering workforce deficit, the Ministry of Health looked to past experience in workforce expansion to rapidly build ART delivery capacity, including reliance on existing nonphysician clinicians (NPC) to prescribe ART and dramatically increasing the output of NPC training. [from abstract]

Job Requirements Compared to Medical School Education: Differences between Graduates from Problem-Based Learning and Convential Curricula

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been suggested as a key educational method of knowledge acquisition to improve medical education. This study sought to evaluate the differences in medical school education between graduates from PBL-based and conventional curricula and to what extent these curricula fit job requirements. [from abstract]

Scaling Up Proven Public Health Interventions through a Locally Owned and Sustained Leadership Development Programme in Rural Upper Egypt

The Ministry of Health introduced a leadership development program in Aswan Governorate. The program aimed to improve health services in three districts by increasing managers’ ability to create high performing teams and lead them to achieve results. The program introduced leadership and management practices and a methodology for identifying and addressing service delivery challenges. [adapted from abstract]

Referrals for Positive Tuberculin Tests in New Health Care Workers and Students: a Retrospective Cohort Study

Documentation of test results for latent tuberculosis infection is important for health care workers and students before they begin work. A negative result provides a baseline for comparison with future tests. A positive result affords a potential opportunity for treatment of latent infection when appropriate. This study sought to evaluate the yield of the referral process for positive baseline tuberculin tests, among persons beginning health care work or studies. [from abstract]

Who Goes Where and Why? Examining HIV Counseling and Testing Services in the Public and Private Sectors in Zambia

The objectives of this study include documenting the role of the private for-profit sector in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service delivery; establishing whether there are significant differences in the quality of VCT services, particularly in counseling and referral practices, between public, private for-profit, NGO, and mission providers; measuring key VCT service statistics at facilities within each sector; and identify best practices from each sector. [adapted from introduction]

Finding Middle Ground: Making Better Use of the African Private Health Sector through More Effective Regulations

This report highlights how changes in the legal and regulatory environment can facilitate expanded access to family planning and reproductive health services through Africa’s private health sector. Using laws and regulations from three Africa countries - Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria - this report presents a road map on how to review the most important laws governing the private sector, as well as key issues to assess. [from introduction]

Employment Integration of Nursing Graduates: Evaluation of a Provincial Policy Strategy Nursing Graduate Guarantee 2008-2009

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]

Strategies to Advance 70% Full-Time Nurse Employment Toolkit

This toolkit was designed for nurse employers across the province of Ontario to use as a resource in working toward the 70% full-time nurse commitment. It is a practical guide to assist Nurse Managers and Human Resource Staff in identifying staffing needs and creating organization-specific strategies to increase full-time employment for nurses. [from author]

Integrating Internationally Educated Health Care Professionals into the Ontario Workforce

The purpose of this report is to provide background information to support the development of guidelines for the integration of internationally educated health professionals into the Ontario workplace. [from summary]