Journal Articles
Predictors of Job Satisfaction Among Doctors, Nurses and Auxiliaries in Norwegian Hospitals: Relevance for Micro Unit Culture
The objective was to explore what domains of work are important for job satisfaction among doctors, nurses and auxiliaries and to discuss differences between professional groups in the perspective of micro team culture. [from abstract]
- 3735 reads
Providers of Health Services in Lebanon: A Survey of Physicians
The objective of this study was to assess the supply of physicians in Lebanon in 1998, with an assessment of their practice patterns and capacity building. [from abstract]
- 1836 reads
Measuring Health Inequalities in Albania: A Focus on the Distribution of General Practitioners
The aim of the present study was to examine available human medical resources in primary care and identify possible inequalities regarding the distribution of general practitioners in Albania between 2000 and 2004.
- 1936 reads
Internship Workplace Preferences of Final-Year Medical Students at Zagreb University Medical School, Croatia: All Roads Lead to Zagreb
Human resources management in health often encounters problems related to workforce geographical distribution. The aim of this study was to investigate the internship workplace preferences of final-year medical students and the reasons associated with their choices. [from abstract]
- 2247 reads
Methodology for Assessing the Professional Development Needs of Nurses and Midwives in Indonesia: Paper 1 of 3
In line with government initiatives, this series of studies was undertaken to establish the training and development needs of nurses and midwives working within a variety of contexts in Indonesia, with the ultimate aim of enhancing care provision within these domains. [from abstract]
- 16718 reads
Training and Development Needs of Midwives in Indonesia: Paper 2 of 3
The current study was part of a review of the existing complex system of midwifery training in Indonesia and the development of a coherent program of continuing professional development, tighter accreditation regulations and clearer professional roles.
- 12779 reads
Training and Development Needs of Nurses in Indonesia: Paper 3 of 3
This study aimed to establish the occupational profiles of each grade of nurse in Indonesia, identify their training and development needs and ascertain whether any differences existed between nurses working in different regions or within hospital or community settings. [from abstract]
- 2812 reads
On the Front Line of Primary Health Care: The Profile of Community Health Workers in Rural Quechua Communities in Peru
The objective of this study was to describe the profile of community health workers - health promoters, traditional birth attendants and traditional healers - in rural Quechua communities from Ayacucho, Peru.
- 3171 reads
Community Development and Its Impact on Health: South Asian Experience
Most South Asian governments have concentrated on emulating a Western style of healthcare service, with the result that an elite few are overmedicalised whereas the majority are neglected. However, community participation in the development of local health services could provide a solution. [abstract]
- 4929 reads
Improving Motivation Among Primary Health Care Workers in Tanzania: A Health Worker Perspective
The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of health workers working in the primary health care facilities in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, in terms of their motivation to work, satisfaction and frustration, and to identify areas for sustainable improvement to the services they provide.
- 3021 reads
Low-Cost On-the-Job Peer Training of Nurses Improved Immunization Coverage in Indonesia
In Indonesia responsibility for immunizations is placed on local government health centres and on the nurses who provide the immunizations at each centre. An on-the-job peer training programme for these nurses, which was designed to improve the immunization performance of poorly performing health centres in terms of coverage and practice in Maluku province, was evaluated. [from abstract]
- 1833 reads
On Pandemics and the Duty to Care: Whose Duty? Who Cares?
An honest and critical examination of the role of Health Care Professionals (HCPs) during communicable disease outbreaks is needed in order to provide guidelines regarding professional rights and responsibilities, as well as ethical duties and obligations. With this paper, we hope to open the social dialogue and advance the public debate on this increasingly urgent issue. [summary]
- 6446 reads
Impact of Tuberculosis on Zambia and the Zambian Nursing Workforce
Zambian nurses have been greatly affected by the rise in the morbidity and mortality of nurses with TB. This article explains the impact of TB on the Zambian nursing workforce. Review of Zambian government programmes designed to address this health crisis and targeted interventions to reduce TB among nurses are offered. [abstract]
- 8203 reads
Decentralization of Health Systems in Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and the Philippines: a Comparative Analysis of Decision Space
This study reviews the experience of decentralization in four developing countries: Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and the Philippines. It uses two analytical frameworks to describe and compare the types and degrees of decentralization in each country. The first framework specifies three types of decentralziation: deconcentration, delegation and devolution. The second framework uses a principle agent approach and innovative maps of decision space to define the range of choice for different functions that is transferred from the centre to the periphery of the system. [from abstract]
- 4781 reads
Decentralization and Equity of Resource Allocation: Evidence from Colombia and Chile
Evidence from Colombia and Chile suggests that decentralization, under certain conditions and with some specific policy mechanisms, can improve equity of resource allocation. In these countries, equitable levels of per capita financial allocations at the municipal level were achieved through different forms of decentralization — the use of allocation formulae, adequate local funding choices and horizontal equity funds. Findings on equity of utilization of services were less consistent, but they did show that increased levels of funding were associated with increased utilization. This suggests that improved equity of funding over time might reduce inequities of service utilization.
- 3502 reads
Decentralization and Health System Reform
This document offers some help in addressing decentralization for health sector actors interested in designing decentralization policies and strategies, implementing them, and/or operating within decentralized health systems. [author’s description]
- 5706 reads
Back to Basics: Does Decentralization Improve Health System Performance? Evidence from Ceará in North-East Brazil
The objective was to examine whether decentralization has improved health system performance in the State of Ceara, north-east Brazil. Decentralization was associated with improved performance, but only for 5 of our 22 performance indicators. Moreover, in the multiple regression, decentralization explained the variance in only one performance indicator; indicators for informal management and political culture appeared to be more important influences. However, some indicators for informal management were themselves associated with decentralization but not any of the political culture indicators.
- 3199 reads
Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality in the Poorest Communities
Current safer motherhood and newborn care programmes emphasize interventions that do not reach the poorest households. Community based interventions have been neglected and undervalued. In this article, we argue that large scale community effectiveness trials are both necessary and feasible if we are to make further progress with reducing maternal and child mortality. [author’s description]
- 1865 reads
Decentralization and Human Resources: Implications and Impact
Decentralization of political and administrative power, combined with a civil service reform, are increasingly prevalent components of health sector reform. The wider implications of decentralization for human resources development are, however, poorly researched and inadequately understood. This paper analyzes these implications from the experience of the author, her colleagues and published literature. [from abstract]
- 3254 reads
Dual Job Holding by Public Sector Health Professionals in Highly Resource-Constrained Settings: Problem or Solution?
This paper examines the policy options for the regulation of dual job holding by medical professionals in highly resource-constrained settings. It draws on the limited evidence available on this topic to assess a number of regulatory options in relation to the objectives of quality of care and access to services, as well as some of the policy constraints that can undermine implementation in resource-poor settings. [from abstract]
- 5902 reads
Effect of Performance-Related Pay of Hospital Doctors on Hospital Behaviour: A Case Study From Shandong, China
With the recognition that public hospitals are often productively inefficient, reforms have taken place worldwide to increase their administrative autonomy and financial responsibility. Reforms in China have been some of the most radical: the government budget for public hospitals was fixed, and hospitals had to rely on charges to fill their financing gap. Accompanying these changes was the widespread introduction of performance-related pay for hospital doctors, termed the “bonus” system. While the policy objective was to improve productivity and cost recovery, it is likely that the incentive to increase the quantity of care provided would operate regardless of whether the care was medically necessary.
- 3511 reads
Qualitative Study of Iranian Nurses' Understanding and Experiences of Professional Power
Nurses are expected to empower their clients, but they cannot do so if they themselves feel powerless. They must become empowered before they can empower others. This paper is an attempt to clarify the concept of power in nursing. It also presents a model describing the factors affecting nurse empowerment. [from abstract]
- 4221 reads
Contemporary Specificities of Labour in the Health Care Sector: Introductory Notes for Discussion
This paper combines the literature on public health, on economics of health and on economics of technological innovation to discuss the peculiarities of labour in the health care sector. The health care system has a distinctive characteristic from other economic sectors: it is the intersection between social welfare and innovation systems. The relationship between technological innovation and cost in the health care sector is surveyed. Finally, the Brazilian case is discussed as an example of a developing country. The peculiarities of labour in the health care sector suggest the need to recognize the worth of sectoral labour and to cease to treat it separately.
- 2021 reads
Migration of Physicians from Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States of America: Measures of the African Brain Drain
The objective of this paper is to describe the numbers, characteristics, and trends in the migration to the United States of physicians trained in sub-Saharan Africa.
- 2366 reads
Integrating Workforce Planning, Human Resources, and Service Planning
This paper provides an analysis of how labour market indicators can be integrated into service planning, discusses whether planning is sufficiently responsive and flexible to retain relevance and validity in rapidly changing health systems, describes different models and approaches to linking and integrating workforce planning and service planning, discusses methodological approaches to integrating planning, and examines effective approaches to the use of computer based scenario modeling to support assessment of current and future planning options. [from abstract]
- 2375 reads
Integrated Strategies to Tackle the Inequitable Distribution of Doctors in Thailand: Four Decades of Experience
This paper aims to summarize strategies to solve inequitable distribution of human resources for health (HRH) between urban and rural areas, by using four decades of experience in Thailand as a case study for analysis. [from abstract]
- 2757 reads
Human Resources for Emergency Obstetric Care in Northern Tanzania: Distribution of Quantity or Quality?
The goal of this article is to evaluate the current status of human resources quality, availability and distribution in Northern Tanzania in order to provide emergency obstetric care services to specific districts in this area. It also discusses the usefulness of distribution indicators for describing equity in the decision-making process. [from abstract]
- 2085 reads
Using Performance-Based Payments to Improve Health Programs
This issue presents a system for funding programs that is tied to program performance to help providers improve their services and the impact of those services in the client population. This issue explains how different payment mechanisms encourage different types of organizational behavior, and why performance-based payment schemes are more likely to help achieve the desired goals than traditional payment schemes. [editors’ description]
- 4447 reads
Appraisal of the Institutional Training Arrangement for Community Health Workers in Bangladesh
This research sheds light on the nature, design and provision of institutional services for providing training to the premier community health service providers in the public sector in Bangladesh. Virtually no major study exists on the training of the FWVs in the country. The methodology of the research mainly consists of a personal interview and questionnaire survey, covering the concerned trainers and officials of the major public health administration and training institutions of the country, including the National Institute of Population Research and Training, the Family Planning Directorate and the Family Welfare Visitors’ Training Institute.
- 2975 reads
Skill Mix in the Health Care Workforce: Reviewing the Evidence
This paper discusses the reasons for skill mix among health workers being important for health systems. It examines the evidence base, identifies its limitations, summarizes the main findings from a literature review, and highlights the evidence on skill mix that is available to inform health system.
- 3160 reads