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This report outlines the work done by the Capacity Project to strengthen human resources to implement quality health programming in developing countries, focusing on: improving workforce planning and leadership; developing better education and training programs; and strengthening systems to support workforce performance. [adapted from author]

Obstetricians, gynaecologists, family physicians, midwives, nurses, and other reproductive health care providers, along with their professional associations, are on the front lines to promote and to protect women’s reproductive health and rights through the clinical services they already provide. Health professionals are also well positioned to address the root causes of many of these problems: inequality, discrimination, and a lack of respect for sexual and reproductive rights. [from introduction]

These yearly reports reflect the key milestones achieved by the department in its quest to improve the health status of South Africans, through the delivery of accessible, caring and good quality services. Most importantly, the report also reflects the department’s limitations and constraints encountered during the reporting period, which will have to be addressed going forward. [from foreword]

The objective of this study was to analyse in what way HRH recruitment, deployment and retention at the district level are influenced by external funding; and to what extent this is in line with national and district policies and strategies. [from abstract]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is severe competition for personnel and staff time between various health programmes and between public and private providers. Such competition is reinforced by the vertical nature of various funding mechanisms supported by bilateral donors, international NGOs and global initiatives. The objective of this study was to analyse in what way HRH recruitment, deployment and retention at the district level are influenced by externally funded programmes. [from summary]

This handbook offers health managers, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive, standardized and user-friendly reference for monitoring and evaluating human resources for health. It brings together an analytical framework with strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked. [from preface]

The author outlines the results of the Emergency Hiring Plan which was designed to quickly hire and train large numbers of qualified health workers in Kenya and deploy them where they are most needed. [adapted from author]

The Health Sector Strategic Plan II 2005/06 – 2009/10 represents a consolidation and extension of the achievements of HSSP I and focuses on health promotion and prevention, including the provision of basic curative services. The HSSP II emphasizes the role of communities/households and individuals ownership for health and health services and defines the planned investments for achieving an optimal balance for scaling up the priority interventions within the available resource envelope.[adapted from summary]

The purpose of these guidelines is to assist nurse leaders in strengthening the management of their professional workforce and, through this, to assist in strengthening health care delivery and strategies for improving health. [from author]

A researcher from the University of Surrey (UK) proposes a basic framework for estimating relative shortages of medical personnel in rural and urban areas of developing countries. The author distinguishes between qualified doctors, trained non-doctors and untrained non-doctors. Using data for Ujjain district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, the author then estimates their impact on the quality of health care available. [from author]

The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy can improve the quality of care for pneumonia and other common illnesses in developing countries, but adherence to these guidelines could be improved. We evaluated an intervention in Benin to support health worker adherence to the guidelines after training, focusing on pneumonia case management. [from abstract]

This book examines two key health workforce policy questions: the impact of government wage bill policies on the size of the health wage bill and on the health workforce staffing levels in the public sector; and if current human resource management policies and practices lead to strategic use of health wage bill resources in the public sector. [from foreword]

This report expands on the findings of the first 2006 report to examine the workforce situation in more countries, describe significant trends which continue to face workforce development and identify pertinent challenges which must be addressed in order to ensure the equitable access and appropriate use of safe, effective and quality medicines as well as pharmaceutical services. This report also draws on the country experiences relating to workforce development in seven countries to explore the challenges and strategies employed to address these and their outcomes. [from forword]

We conducted a survey among nurses and midwives working at district level in Sudan and Zambia to determine their roles and functions in polio eradication and measles elimination programs. [from abstract]

Quality of care in general practice may be affected by the team climate perceived by its health and non-health professionals. This study aimed to explore individual and practice factors that were associated with team climate, and to explore the relationship between team climate and quality of care. [from abstract]

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a community pharmacist intervention developed to improve adherence and outcomes of primary care patients with depression. [from abstract]

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) involves making clinical decisions informed by the most relevant and valid evidence available. Adopting an evidence-based approach to practice requires differing competencies across various domains including literature searching, critical appraisal and communication. This paper examines the current tools available to assess EBP competence and compares their applicability to existing assessment techniques used in medicine, nursing and health sciences. [from abstract]

The mandatory interprofessional education program - a process by which students and practitioners from various health professions learn together with the goals of interaction and collaboration in providing health promotion, disease prevention, curative services, rehabilitation and palliation - was initiated in 1999 at Gunma University. This paper is a statistical evaluation of the programme from 1999 to 2007. [adapted from abstract]

This study’s purpose is to compare how physicians, working for both public and privatized hospitals, rate their respective psychosocial working conditions and job satisfaction. [from abstract]

The Health Sector Strategic Plan II is a three year strategic plan that will guide all interventions in the Rwandan health sector for July 2009 - June 2012. The plan details the direction the health sector will take in the next three years, the achievements and outcomes that will be attained and the interventions that will be undertaken to make sure these targets are met.

This document chronicles the evolution of e-learning among nurses in Kenya. It charts the obstacles - a shortage of qualified tutors, the scarcity of clinical placements - and the priorities to overcome them. [adapted from author]

This version of Voices reveals how hospital staff are using the Project’s performance improvement approach to strengthen comprehensive HIV care. [adapted from author]

Poor public health indicators in Tanzania have led to the upgrading of nursing and clinical personnel who currently have just core training. This article reports on a project to assist the upgrade of clinical officers working around sexually transmissible infections within the context of healthcare, education and policy developments in Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

This publication outlines the processes to be followed by the Uganda Health Continuing Professional Development (CDP) Accreditation Agency, providers of CPD and health professionals applying for relicensure after CPD training.

This paper aims to describe the design, methods and approaches used to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the skilled care initiative in reducing pregnancy-related and perinatal mortality in Ouargaye district, Burkina Faso. [from summary]

The aim of this paper is to assess to what extent a skilled care initiative was associated with pregnancy-related mortality in Ouargaye district, Burkina Faso. [from summary]

This two-year study to assessed the usefulness and effectiveness of using paraprofessionals in educating and providing emergency contraceptive pill services to potential users. [from summary]

This study was undertaken primarily to understand what effect the efforts to integrate family planning and VCT services in health facilities had on health care providers’ work and service delivery practices in two regions of Ethiopia. [from summary]

This study tested the feasibility, acceptability, and cost of two models for integrating HIV prevention services, including counseling and testing, within established family planning programs, and evaluated their quality against the standard practice. [from author]

Pay for performance (P4P) is an innovative approach that explicitly links financial investment in health to health results. However, the mechanics of its implementation need to be planned very carefully to elicit the desired behavior change in a given country. This guide offers the reader a systematic framework to document and structure a P4P initiative. [adapted from foreword]