Journal Articles

The explicit need to focus on quality of care underpins the aim of this study to evaluate the safety culture and teamwork climate in the public maternity units of the 5 regional hospitals in Cyprus as measured by a validated safety attitudes tool. [from abstract]

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate if a facilitation intervention on the community level, with a problem-solving approach involving local representatives if the healthcare system and the community, results in improvements of neonatal health and survival. [adapted from abstract]

This article explores the nature and depth of managerial engagement of health facility committees at the facility level in two rural districts in Kenya, and how this has contributed to community accountability. [from abstract]

This article describes a community intervention conducted aimed at improving early malaria case management in under five children. Health workers were trained to train community-based women groups in recognizing malaria symptoms, providing first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria and referring severe cases. [adapted from abstract]

The objective of this study was to assess whether the development and implementation of a community health worker project in rural Kenya was associated with an increase in knowledge about malaria and the use of insecticide-treated nets in children under five years of age. [from abstract]

This article outlines a study designed to measure knowledge changes among healthcare workers who participated in a tuberculosis training programme and to make recommendations about future tuberculosis training for healthcare workers in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. [adapted from abstract]

Central within the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health is the aim to leverage more resources for health financing while simultaneously generating more results from existing resources. This paper considers these ambitions from a human resources for health perspective. [adapted from abstract]

This article outlines a project to research the number and needs of specialists and subspecialists within South Africa. [adapted from author]

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that two training programs for midwives in Zambia would reduce incrementally 7-day neonatal mortality rates for low-risk institutional deliveries. [adapted from abstract]

In order to gain a general picture of the intercultural challenges faced by Geneva physicians and inform the development of targeted training activities, we conducted a large-scale survey of physicians’ and medical students’ knowledge, attitudes and skills related to care of immigrant patients. This paper reports on respondents’ self-assessments of their clinical and intercultural skills. [from author]

This paper attempts to explore the migration of nurses from India in the context of nursing shortages in the country. It looks at the relationship between the development of the nursing profession in India, shortage of nurses in the country and international migration of Indian nurses. [from introduction]

This work was undertaken to inform the debate on the relationship between working conditions and the provision of health care. We found that the work environment impacts on health care workers as they try to provide a more equitable form of health care. [from abstract]

This paper states that it is critical for HRH leaders to take action to ensure that already available workforce strengthening tools are disseminated, adapted and used to foster effective implementation at the country level. The paper highlights four such tools as examples that can be used to build implementation capacity, and acknowledges more like them. [adapted from abstract]

This issue of Contact is dedicated to HRH in faith-based organizations and includes articles such as: Formulating Policy for Human Resources in Health; Human Resources Crisis in Christian Health Associations; Health Worker Migration and Retention in Africa; New Economic Models for Faith-based Health Care; The Challenge of Retaining Health Workers in Lesotho; adn Building Capacity through Health Worker Training. [adapted from author]

This article discusses the Health Extension Program, an innovative community-based health program in Ethiopia. It is based on the assumption that access to and quality of primary health care in rural communities can be improved through transfer of health knowledge and skills to households.

The objective of this review was to assess the effects of lay health worker interventions on childhood immunisation uptake. [from summary]

In South Africa, limited human resources are a major constraint to achieving universal antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage. Decentralization or “down-referral” (wherein ART patients deemed stable on therapy are referred to their closest Primary Health Clinics (PHCs) for treatment follow-up) is being used as a possible alternative of ART delivery care. This cross-sectional qualitative study investigates attitudes towards down-referral of ART delivery care among patients currently receiving care in a centralized tertiary HIV clinic. [from abstract]

A task analysis survey of health workers in Liberia was conducted to determine how often recently graduated health workers perform tasks from the basic package of health services, and whether training was received for these tasks either in school or on the job. This paper focuses on nurse and midwife cadres and describe the: implementation of the study in Liberia; key findings and analysis of select clinical tasks; and recommendations for improving and integrating educational programs. [adapted from abstract]

Recruiting, retaining and meeting increasing demand for experienced, qualified nurses is an issue of concern for all health care systems. This paper considers the factors that sustain or curtail workforce innovations through the case example of a cohort of nurse consultants established in one community health service in England.

This analysis seeks to quantify differences in the quality of family planning (FP) services at public and private providers in three representative sub-Saharan African countries (Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana), to assess how these quality differentials impact upon FP clients’ satisfaction, and to suggest how quality improvements can improve contraceptive continuation rates.

This report describes the development of a guideline and training program (PALM PLUS) designed to integrate HIV/AIDS care with other primary care in Malawi. [from abstract]

The main purpose of this study was to discuss the nationality differences of foreign nurse aides and the effect of work stressors influencing work adjustment. [from abstract]

Many countries, including Vietnam, are debating the right mix of interventions to motivate doctors in particular to work in remote areas. The objective of this study was to understand the dynamics of the health labour market in Vietnam, and what might encourage doctors to accept posts and remain in-post in rural areas. [from abstract]

This article outlines the project to develop and evaluate a continuing medical education (CME) course aimed at improving healthcare provider knowledge about breast cancer health disparities and the importance of cross-cultural communication in provider-patient interactions about breast cancer screening. [from abstract]

This article explores community health worker (CHW) programs and describes their potential use in low- and middle-income countries. It uses South Africa as an example of how CHWs could improve access to breast health care because of its middle-income status, existing cancer centers, and history of CHW programs. [adapated from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect on perinatal mortality of training birth attendants in a rural area of the Democratic Republic of Congo using two established programs. [from abstract]

This article highlights some challenges from the recent experience with surgical team after the Haiti earthquake and proposes some ways forward to support an effective surgical humanitarian response to future major disasters. [adapted from author]

This study assessed whether text-message reminders sent to health workers’ mobile phones could improve and maintain their adherence to treatment guidelines for outpatient paediatric malaria in Kenya. [from summary]

This paper assesses the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on willingness to accept postings to deprived areas among medical students in Ghana. [from abstract]

This paper illustrates the process, successes, ongoing challenges and current strategies Liberia has used to increase and improve HRH since the end of a 14-year cival war, particularly the nursing workforce. [adapted from abstract]