Journal Articles

This cross-sectional study was therefore designed to assess the level of knowledge and practice of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy among health workers. [adapted from abstract]

This study assessed the quality of care provided by community health workers in managing cases of severe acute malnutrition according to a treatment algorithm. [from abstract]

This comment reveals that despite what seem to be impressive gains in medical education and health research in Pakistan, the actual state of affairs is neither exciting nor remarkable. [from author]

This paper examines the effect of the integrated model for HIV treatment with other primary care services on the organization of clinic services, and explores service providers’ perceptions of the integrated model. [adapted from abstract]

The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and impact of bullying behaviours between staff in the National Health Service (NHS) workplace, and to explore the barriers to reporting bullying. [from abstract]

Several studies have suggested policy options to reduce brain drain from Africa. The purpose of this paper is to review possible policies which can stem the impact of health professional brain drain from Africa. [from abstract]

Training health workers to use integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) guidelines can improve care for ill children in outpatient settings in developing countries. This article aimed to determine if the performance of IMCI-trained health workers deteriorated over 3 years. [from abstract]

This study aimed to assess health workers’ compliance with the procedures set in the focused antenatal care guidelines in rural Uganda, Tanzania and Burkina Faso; to compare the compliance within and among the three study sites; and to appraise the logistic and supply of the respective health facilities. [from abstract]

Enacting appropriate changes in both regulation and education of nurses requires engagement of national regulatory bodies, and key stakeholders such as government chief nursing officers, professional associations, and educators. The purpose of this research is to describe the perspectives and engagement of these stakeholders in advancing critical regulatory and educational reform in east, central, and southern Africa. [adapted from abstract]

This study tested a home-visits strategy to improve neonatal mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa by assessing the effect on all-cause neonatal mortality rate and essential newborn-care practices after community-based surveillance volunteers were trained to identify pregnant women in their community and to make two home visits during pregnancy and three in the first week of life to promote essential newborn-care practices. [adapted from summary]

This study measured the impact of integration of HIV care into primary care during a randomized controlled trial of task shifting and decentralization of HIV care in South Africa. [adapted from abstract]

This paper assesses the gender-based distribution of the United Republic of Tanzania’s health workforce cadres. [from abstract]

This interview with Shaheen Hussain of Pakistan tells the story of how she became a field-based health educator with a social franchise of private reproductive health care providers and is a testimony of how this program not only touches the lives of the women who receive the reproductive health services but also of the health educators themselves.

Increasing demand, enlarged workloads, and current and anticipated physician shortages in many countries have led to the introduction of mid-level professionals, such as physician assistants. This systematic review aimed to appraise the evidence of the contribution of these workers within primary care relevant to the UK or similar systems. [adapted from abstract]

This study focuses on general practioner (GP) turnover and the determining factors for this in the Netherlands. For two time periods, the authors analysed work perception, objective workload and reasons for leaving, and related these with the probability that GPs would leave general practice at an early age. [adapted from abstract]

This article reports on a comprehensive assessment of the quality of training at a large postgraduate psychiatry training institute using non-anonymised face-to-face interviews with trainees and their trainers, which successfully elicited strengths and weakness of the program and may well provide important information to allow for targeted improvement of health training in general. [adapted from abstract]

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development process of two shortened formats for a systematic review intended for use by primary care physicians as an information tool for clinical decision-making. [from abstract]

This study attempts to gather information on health care aides, a cadre that constitutes a significant component of the health care labor force providing home and community care in Canada, to fill gaps in basic information about this component of the workforce including motivations, retention, and adequacy of their training. [adapted from author]

This article argues that paramedics’ skills, education and experience enable them to become useful physician assistants who may relieve much of the doctors’ burden, allowing physicians in remote hospitals to concentrate on genuine medical duties; but the objection of doctors’ and nurses’ professional organizations constitute a substantial obstacle to this solution. [adapted from abstract]

The primary objective of this study was to solicit and identify perspectives on vertical aid among key Mozambican public sector health managers who must coordinate, implement, and manage the myriad projects, agencies, and resource flows that the increase in vertical funding has produced amid continued severe workforce staffing shortages. [from author]

This study involves an evaluation of a quality-improvement programme for the long-term care in The Netherlands and deals with seven quality-improvement collaboratives focusing on patient safety and client autonomy in order to explore whether differences between collaboratives with respect to type of topic, type of targets and measures (systems) are also reflected in the degree of effectiveness. [adapted from author]

This study identified variables that were significantly related to physician and nurse employment rates in the public healthcare sector in Serbia from 1961 to 2008 and used these to develop parameters to model physician and nurse supply in the public healthcare sector through to 2015. [from abstract]

This article describes the rationale for the UK to learn from Brazil’s scaled-up Community Health Worker primary care strategy, starting with a pilot project in North Wales. [from abstract]

In Pakistan, where gendered norms restrict women’s mobility, female community health workers (CHWs) provide doorstep primary health services to home-bound women. This study aims to understand how these cultural norms affect CHWs’ home-visit rates and the quality of services delivered. [from abstract]

Death certificates can provide valuable health status data regarding disease incidence, prevalence and mortality in a community to guide local health policy and help in setting priorities. This study evaluated the accuracy of death certificates at a tertiary care teaching hospital in a Karachi, Pakistan. [adapted from abstract]

The objective of this study is to compare measures of cost and quality of care (in-hospital mortality, 30-day same-facility readmission, and length of stay) of hospitalists vs. traditional physician providers in a large Canadian community hospital setting. [from abstract]

To portray the different possible developments in the supply of nursing professionals, the authors projected the supply of formally trained nurses and the potential supply of persons who are able to work in a nursing professioncalculated on the basis of empirical information on occupational mobility from a national census. [adapted from abstract]

This study aims to assess the prevalence of voluntary counselling and testing and high risk behaviours among health care workers in Burkina Faso. [from abstract]

This artical reports the clinical and programatic outcomes at 24 months for a cohort of patients enrolled in a community-based anti-retroviral treatment (ART) program in southeastern Rwanda which provided additional measures of support at the community level, including community-based psychosocial support and directly observed ART delivered by community health workers. [adapted from author]

Given the complexity of the social, professional and economic factors that influence motivation, this article addresses how institutions make rural job postings more attractive and how they can identify what kinds of incentive packages can attract and motivate young, bright graduates to serve the areas of their country that are most in need. [adapted from author]