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Staff/Bed and Staff/Patient Ratios in South African Public Sector Mental Health Services

This article reports on cross-sectional survey documenting staff/bed ratios in public sector mental health services in South Africa. [from abstract]

Medical Schools in Rural Areas – Necessity or Aberration?

The purpose of this article was to analyze and compare the graduates of an urban- and a rural-located university in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where there is major maldistribution of physicians. While 70% of Congolese live in rural areas, relatively few doctors practice there. The results of the research for this article support the policy of establishing medical schools in rural areas, and also provide indications of approaches likely to increase the number and expertise of rural-located physicians. [adapted from abstract]

Increasing Leadership Capacity for HIV/AIDS Programs by Strengthening Public Health Epidemiology and Management Training in Zimbabwe

This paper describes a programme in Zimbabwe aimed at responding more effectively to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by reinforcing a critical competence-based training institution and producing public health leaders. [adapted from abstract]

I Won't be Staying Here for Long: a Qualitative Study on the Retention of Migrant Nurses in Ireland

Although international nurse recruitment campaigns have succeeded in attracting large numbers of migrant nurses to countries such as Ireland, where domestic supply has not kept pace with demand, the long-term success of such initiatives from a workforce planning perspective will depend on the extent to which these nurses can be retained in destination countries. [from introduction]

From Kampala to the Districts: Linking Data, Saving Lives

This video and its accompanying paper describe the experiences of two Ugandan nurses in coping with staff shortages and challenging conditions, as well as the use of data by the Ministry of Health and the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council to support the country's health workers and improve health care in the districts. [adapted from description]

Equity-Oriented Toolkit for Health Technology Assessment and Knowledge Translation: Application to Scaling Up of Training and Education for Health Workers

This paper illustrates how decision-makers can use evidence and tools from an equity-oriented toolkit to scale up training and education of health workers. [adapted from abstract]

Can Community Volunteers Work to Trace Patients Defaulting from Scheduled Psychiatric Clinic Appointments?

This article details the results of a South African study assessing the feasibility of utilizing volunteers in tracing patients who had defaulted from scheduled psychiatric clinic appointments. [adapted from introduction]

Community Service Doctors in Limpopo Province

This article describes the impact of community service doctors on offsetting the shortage of health professionals in public hospitals in South Africa. [adapted from introduction]

Foreign Nurses 'Trickle In' - Eight Times Slower than Locals Leaving

This article describes the imbalance between the influx of foreign nurses and the out-migration of indigenous personnel in South Africa. [adapted from introduction]

Unpaid Community Volunteers - Effective Providers of Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) in Rural South Africa

This article reports on the obstacles to care and the outcome of treatment for patients presenting with tuberculosis to four hospitals in the rural South African region of Sekhukhuneland. [adapted from article]

Public-Sector Maternal Health Programs and Services for Rural Bangladesh

This paper assesses the development of maternal health services and policies in Bangladesh by reviewing policy and strategy documents since the country's independence in 1971, with primary focus on rural areas where three-fourths of the total population of reside. [adapted from abstract]

Impact of the AIDS Pandemic on Health Services in Africa: Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys

This paper documents the impact of the AIDS crisis on non-AIDS related health services in fourteen sub-Saharan African countries. [from introduction]

Where There is No Surgeon: Upscaling Surgical Skills Transfer for Healthcare Professionals in Developing Countries

The Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning Wiki provides materials to enhance surgical care in urban and rural environments, using various forms of the modern but low-cost technology now available, presented in a workshop/discussion/lecture format. [adapted from introduction]

Improving Recruitment of Surgical Trainees and Training of Surgeons in Uganda

This paper reports on how to improve recruitment of surgical trainees and training of surgeons in Uganda, focusing on perceptions of potential trainees, trainers, and medical administrators. [from introduction]

Connecting Regions, Leading the Way: Sharing Health Worker Information in Namibia

Information on a country’s health workers is essential for planning and decision-making. The Capacity Project met with key decision-makers in Namibia to assess their information needs. This document describes the outcome and its impact on the Namibian health workforce. [adapted from author]

Empowering Health Personnel for Decentralized Health Planning in India: the Public Health Resource Network

This article describes the Public Health Resource Network, an innovative distance-learning course in training, motivating, empowering and building a network of health personnel from government and civil society groups. Its aim is to build human resource capacity for strengthening decentralized health planning, especially at the district level. [from abstract]

Addressing Gaps in Surgical Skills Training by Means of Low-Cost Simulation at Muhimbili University in Tanzania

The shortages of teaching faculty and insufficient learning resources have hampered the traditionally intensive surgical training apprenticeships. To address this, Muhimbili University attempted to enhance technical skills in general surgery and emergency procedures for senior medical students by implementing a surgical skills practicum using locally developed simulation models. This article evaluates the effectiveness of the program. [adpated from abstract]

Retention of Health Workers in Malawi: Perpectives of Health Workers and District Management

Most of the district health services in Malawi are provided by nurses and clinical health officers specially trained to provide services that would normally be provided by fully qualified doctors or specialists. This study explores how these cadres are managed and motivated and the impact this has on their performance. [adapted from abstract]

Health Workforce Attrition in the Public Sector in Kenya: a Look at the Reasons

This study analyzed data from a human resources health facility survey conducted in Kenya. The study looked into the status of attrition rates and the proportion of attrition due to retirement, resignation or death among doctors, clinical officers, nurses and laboratory and pharmacy specialists in surveyed facilities. [adapted from abstract]

Knowledge and Communication Needs Assessment of Community Health Workers in a Developing Country: a Qualitative Study

We conducted this study to document the perceptions of community health workers in Pakistan on their knowledge and communication needs, image building through mass media and mechanisms for continued education. [adapted from abstract]

Improving Obstetric Care in Low-Resource Settings: Implementation of Facility-Based Maternal Death Reviews in Five Pilot Hospitals in Senegal

In resource-poor settings, the facility-based maternal death review or audit is one of the most promising strategies to improve health service performance. We aim to explore and describe health workers’ perceptions of facility-based maternal death reviews and to identify barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of this approach in pilot health facilities of Senegal. [from abstract]

Sending Money Home: a Mixed-Methods Study of Remittances by Migrant Nurses in Ireland

This paper presents data on the remittances sent by migrant nurses to their families back home. It gives voice to the experiences of migrant nurses and illustrates the financial obligations they maintain while working overseas. [from abstract]

Review of the Application and Contribution of Discrete Choice Experiments to inform Human Resources Policy Interventions

We carried out a literature review of studies using discrete choice experiments to investigate human resources issues related to health workers, both in developed and developing countries. Ten studies were found that used discrete choice experiments to investigate the job preferences of health care providers. The use of discrete choice experiments techniques enabled researchers to determine the relative importance of different factors influencing health workers’ choices. [from abstract]

Managing Human Resources for Health

Within the broad subject field of human resource development, human resource management is the most substantial area, as it involves all aspects of personnel management as well as issues of capacity, training, etc. In this unit [of the online course] we will introduce you to the scope and context of human resource management in the health sector. [from author]

Impact of HIV/AIDS on Human Resources for Health in Tanzania

This study sought to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS on the human resources in the health sector in Tanzania, to provide up to date and specific data on the needs and the supply of human resources in the health sector, and to inform the formulation of strategies for strengthening human resources in the health sector. [from summary]

Help Wanted: Problems in Health Workforce Globalization

This presentation addresses health workforce supply and distribution issues and stakeholders, as well as the consequences of inaction in resolving these issues.

Establishing and Monitoring Benchmarks for Human Resources for Health: the Workforce Density Approach

This article offers guidance regarding the benchmarking of health workforce sufficiency as a critical component of monitoring and strengthening the performance of national health systems. [adapted from introduction]

Internet Tool Box for Rural GPs to Access Mental Health Services Information

This article documents the key stages of a project to develop and implement an online resource for facilitating local implementation and delivery of a program to provide improved access to mental health care. The article also reports on the use of this resource 12 months after its launch. [adapted from abstract]

Nurses in the Workplace: Expectations and Needs

This presentation provides the detailed findings of a global survey undertaken to provide a better understanding of challenges, opportunities and viewpoints in the field of nursing.

Critical Review of Interventions to Redress the Inequitable Distribution of Healthcare Professionals to Rural and Remote Areas

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the most important studies addressing the recruitment and retention of doctors to rural and remote areas of Australia. [adapted from abstract]