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This review describes evidence about the benefits and pitfalls of current approaches to human resources optimisation in health care. It concludes that in order to use human resources most effectively, health care organisations must consider a more systemic approach - one that accounts for factors beyond narrowly defined human resources management practices and includes organisational and institutional conditions. [from abstract]

HIV scale-up has triggered innovations in nurse training, task shifting, retention, and scope of practice that need not remain HIV specific. Lessons learned in the context of HIV have the potential to enhance nursing practice and human resources for health more generally, strengthening South Africa’s health systems and improving access to effective health services. [from abstract]

This presentation for the APHA Annual Meeting illustrates the use of geographic and health information systems to identify gaps in service delivery and vaccination coverage in Yemen in order to assign human and technical resources.

This concept paper summarizes an approach based on the principles of organizational development that is aimed at complementing health information systems (HIS) strengthening efforts to make them more effective. [from summary]

This paper presents the findings of qualitative research documenting the participant experiences in the Observer Program, a hospital-based pre-employment program for international medical graduates entering the Australian healthcare system. [adapted from author]

The report is the culmination of a work group tasked with exploring practical and feasible ways for donors and technical agencies to support improvements in public-private interaction in developing countries as a means to accelerate the achievement of widely agreed-upon social objectives: reduced mortality and expanded and more equitable access to health services and essential medicines and products. [from author]

The paper aims to provide a framework that can be used to analyse the interplay between continuing professional development (CPD), organisational culture and performance. It is argued that for CPD to support performance there is need for a culture that is adaptive and receptive to learning, change, innovation and performance improvement. [from abstract]

The objective of this document was to conduct a systematic review of the evidence on characteristics of community health workers (CHWs) and CHW interventions, outcomes of such interventions, costs and cost-effectiveness of CHW interventions, and characteristics of CHW training. [from abstract]

This working paper describes a tool and model for extimating the health worker requirments for scaling up priority health interventions in limited resource areas of sub-Saharan Africa, rooted in the concept of functional job analysis and taking into consideration skill set and quality measures. [adapted from author]

Until recently researchers and policymakers paid little attention to the role of health workers in developing countries but a new generation of studies are providing a fuller understanding of these issues using more sophisticated data and research tools. This article presents ten examples of this new type of research. [from introduction]

This paper supports the promotion of appropriate standards and practices to ensure quality in FP/RH services at the local level. It argues that investments in written updates of FP/RH norms and standards and their dissemination must be complemented with innovative organizational and management systems strengthening to ensure their use in low-resource settings. [adapted from introduction]

The Capacity Project worked with governments and partners in Central America and Uganda to test approaches for strengthening supervision systems in the health sector, as one component of the Project’s workforce performance support strengthening. [from summary]

Recognizing the need to focus on health worker supply in order to achieve progress on health indicators, the Ministry of Health in Tanzania developed the Twiga Initiative to strengthen health workforce production through. This document outlines the steps taken to improve health worker training and institutions and the challenges involved. [adapted from author]

This report examines demographic, social, and political factors driving the increased international migration of workers to provide long-term care services in developed countries. [from introduction]

Clinical practice guidelines have been developed aiming to improve the quality of care. The implementation of the computerized clinical guidelines (CCG) has been supported by the development of computerized clinical decision support systems. This systematic review assesses the impact of CCG on the process of care compared with non-computerized clinical guidelines. [from abstract]

The objective of this paper is to describe the development and initial implementation of a curriculum for teaching medical students to care for patients with disabilities. [from abstract]

This handbook provides background information on the current workforce situation in the health sector and summarizes the issues and challenges; introduces the HRH Action Framework and the Stop TB (tuberculosis) Strategy; applies the Framework to human resource development (HRD) for comprehensive TB control; describes how to prepare a strategic plan for HRD in support of comprehensive TB control; and gives a step-by-step guide on how to develop HRD plans based on the structures and processes described. [adapted from introduction]

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a training program on hand hygiene for the reduction of healthcare-associated infections for primary healthcare workers. [adapted from author]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the fiscal and macroeconomic implications associated with scaling up health workforce capacity. While these general issues and concepts are relevant in all setting, the focus of the discussion is on low-income countries and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. [from publisher]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 presents an analysis of the relationship between the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives across countries and the intervention coverage. It demonstrates that health status and levels of coverage are positively associated with health worker density. The purpose of this paper, is to determine whether these relationships are robust to the inclusion of many more countries in the data set.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the various options to allow comparative analysis of inequalities in the distribution of health workers across and within countries, using a single summary measure of this distribution. The paper first presents the scale problem of various inequality indices, then tests how sensitive a simple ratio measure of the distribution of health workers is to changes in scale.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 aims to calculate the workforce implications of demographic changes by projecting future health workforces for developed economies, including Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada. [from publisher]

This background study to the World Health Report 2006 is an attempt to provide a preliminary analysis of inflow and outflow patterns of health service providers in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is limited only to three types of health workers—doctors, nurses and midwives—and to countries in the region with critical shortages of health workers. [from publisher]

Managing health workforce expenditure requires the generation of evidence in order to support informed policy decisions. This background paper for the World Health Report 2006 takes a step forward in exploring HRH expenditures and presents the results of a first measurement for the health workforce in WHO Member States in the years 1998–2003. [from publisher]

The overall objective of this background paper for the World Health Report 2006 is to describe variations in health worker wages across countries. However, where data are available, the authors explore variations within countries between health workers and comparable professionals. The main issues of standardization and comparability are discussed. The results are a first attempt to understand the nature of the variability of wages across settings. [from publisher]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 describes the approaches followed in assembling the global database as well as some preliminary analysis of the content of the source data. The broad picture of health workers worldwide is examined and some useful strategies for improving health workforce statistics are highlighted. [from publisher]

Leadership courses and multi-source feedback are widely used developmental tools for leaders in health care. The authors aimed to study the additional effect of a leadership course following a multi-source feedback procedure compared to multi-source feedback alone especially regarding development of leadership skills over time. [from abstract]

This issue of Voices highlights the Capacity Project’s success in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce and its impact on health systems strengthening. [from publisher]

This study evaluates the impact and sustainability of a competitive voucher program on the quality of reproductive health care for poor and underserved female adolescents and the usefulness of the simulated patient method for such evaluation. [from abstract]

This book explores a new approach to health funding, the transfer of money or goods to patients or providers when they take health-related actions or achieve performance targets. It documents a host of experiences with incentives for maternal and child health care, tuberculosis, child nutrition, HIV/AIDS, chronic conditions and more. [from publisher]