Tools & Guides

The purpose of this newly revised manual and accompanying toolbook is to assist health care providers working in emergency obstetric care (EmOC) settings to improve the quality of services within their facility. With whatever resources are at hand, quality improvement (QI) processes can help staff change and improve practices and conditions and, in so doing, have a significant impact on pregnancy outcomes. [publisher’s description]

This document is directed towards individual nurses to help them take charge and be in control of their careers within the ever-changing world of health care. These guidelines highlight the key dimensions of career planning and development and offer guidance to those who wish to evaluate the present and shape their future. [adapted from introduction]

The content of these guidelines focuses on nurse entrepreneurs providing nursing services. These guidelines aim to: provide background knowledge on the development of nurse entrepreneurs providing nursing service; establish the link between nurse entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs; identify the roles, services, basic profile and requirements of nurse entrepreneurs; and define the potential role of national nurses’ associations in the development and regulation of nurse entrepreneurs providing nursing service. [adpated from author’s description)

This pre-tested and peer-reviewed curriculum focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for providing holistic CHBC for people living with HIV/AIDS, transferring knowledge and skills to caregivers and CHBC clients, and mobilizing communities around HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and support. The trainer’s guide includes comprehensive units that cover topics from HIV basics, communication skills, nursing care, nutrition, positive living, family planning, HIV prevention, ART, to community mobilization.

The objectives of these guidelines are: to review the prevalence, incidence and impact of abuse and violence against nursing personnel, to recognise nurses’ responses to incidents of violence, to determine the major security factors acting on the workplace, and to present strategies that aim to confront and reduce/eliminate violence in the workplace. [adapted from introduction]

The objective of these guidelines is to provide general guidance in addressing workplace violence in the health sector. Far from being in any way prescriptive, the guidelines should be considered a basic reference tool for stimulating the autonomous development of similar instruments specifically targeted at and adapted to different cultures, situations and needs. The guidelines cover prevention, management and mitigation of the impact of workplace violence, care and support of workers affected and sustainability of initiatives. [adapted from author]

This IUD assessment tool provides performance standards for IUD provision based on type of visit-new client or revisit. It may be used as part of a programmatic performance improvement initiative, by the site or individual providers to self-assess or by external evaluators to assess achievement of the standards. Often, performance standards are used to affect change at multiple sites. [author’s description]

There is a growing acknowledgment of the importance of the continuum of care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS outside of health facilities. Greater reliance on communities to provide care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS as well as non-complex maintenance and adherence support for treatment of those who are under antiretroviral treatment is seen as a way to alleviate the burden placed on traditional health systems in countries highly affected by HIV/AIDS. This report presents findings from the field-test of the Partners for Health Reformplus guidelines developed for costing home-based care (HBC) programs, with cases drawn from nine HBC programs in Uganda.

A conceptual framework of motivation processes is presented and used to identify strategies and options for the measurement of health worker motivation in developing countries. Measures of motivation are broadly organized into determinant and consequent categories, and determinants are further distinguished in terms of measures that influence worker–organization goal congruence (“will do” motivation) and those directed toward goal striving (“can do” motivation).

This is a glossary of terms commonly used in the field of Human Resources for Health.

This Manual is designed to be a quick-and-easy, user-friendly reference for the development of health management information systems (HMIS), with the focus on applications. It serves as a primer on HMIS development and provides a general overview of the basic principles, as well as the fundamental steps and issues involved in the different activities to be undertaken. It aims simply to provide the basic elements on HMIS development for people who do not have the time or the need to read deeply on the subject.

In Albania, the PHRplus Project developed and tested a series of tools designed to introduce family medicine concepts and strengthen primary health care (PHC) services. PHC facility managers will find the toolkits useful reference materials when developing strategies and tools to improve quality of care and monitor and evaluate PHC strengthening efforts. This series comprises three toolkits: PHC Service Delivery Toolkit; PHC Quality Improvement (QI) Toolkit; and PHC Health Information Systems (HIS) Toolkit. [from abstract]

The Assessment Approach is designed to provide a rapid yet comprehensive assessment of key health systems functions and related resources. The approach is organized around technical modules which guide data collection, and cover the following areas: stewardship, health financing, service delivery, human resources, pharmaceuticals, and ealth information systems. [publisher’s description]

Over the past four decades there has been a trend for pharmacy practice to move away from its original focus on medicine supply towards a more inclusive focus on patient care. The role of the pharmacist has evolved from that of a compounder and supplier of pharmaceutical products towards that of a provider of services and information and ultimately that of a provider of patient care. This introductory handbook sets out a new paradigm for pharmacy practice.

Managing for Quality is a collaborative effort between Management Sciences for Health and UNICEF to develop a practical, useful and interactive resource that managers can use to improve quality in the many different types of health and family planning programs in which they work.

This paper focuses on nurses who have migrated and are registered/licensed/authorized to practice, post-adaptation/orientation, and are working as a nurse in a given country. The term international nurse is used for nurses who have been educated abroad and have either been recruited or have chosen to migrate.

These guidelines…propose a set of questions that a prospective learner or purchaser of distance education can use for selecting suitable distance learning programmes. [adapted from introduction]

The standards provide a new framework against which individual doctors and the medical profession can assess themselves in a voluntary self-evaluation and self-improvement process. The standards should form the basis for continuted professional development (CPD) providers in designing CPD activities. Depending on local needs and traditions, the standards can also be used by national or regional agencies engaged in monitoring, recognition, and accreditation of CPD. [from introduction]

The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) Working Party applied the principles which were developed regarding basic medical education to postgraduate medical education. Attention was focused on the general application of guidelines in quality development of medical education. WFME holds that the set of international standards presented can be used globally as a tool for quality assurance and development of postgraduate medical education. [from introduction]

A central part of the World Federation for Medical Education strategy is to give priority to specification of international standards and guidelines for medical education, comprising both institutions and their educational programmes. Adoption of international standards will constitute a new framework for medical schools to measure themselves. Furthermore, internationally accepted standards could be used as a basis for national and regional recognition and accreditation of medical schools’ educational programs. [from introduction]

The purpose of the guidance package is to assist policy-makers and planners to: develop a policy and comprehensive strategy for improving the mental health of populations; use existing resources to achieve the greatest possible benefits; provide effective services to persons in need; and assist the reintegration of people with mental disorders into all aspects of community life, thus improving their overall quality of life.

The Family Planning Manager’s Handbook is a standard text in management training courses around the world and has received wide recognition as a practical guide for managers of health and family planning programs. [publisher’s description]

This module is designed to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals on gender-based violence. Gender-based violence has long remained a feature of family and social life, about which society has preferred to remain silent. GBV takes many forms and affects a large number of women from all parts of the world at different points in their life cycle, from infancy and childhood to adulthood and old age. Health professionals are in a unique position to identify the problem, contribute to its prevention and assist victims.

This book contains a series of case studies which depict the management issues a family planning organization faces in designing and implementing a new community-based distribution (CBD) program for contraceptives. The cases, which take place in a fictional country Momonboro, are based on an actual program initiated in an African country, and reflect the problems and successes which that program experienced.

These job satisfaction surveys are tools intended to gain feedback from providers who have stayed in their positions, providers who have changed jobs and managers in district and facility level health centers in order to measure satisfaction with working conditions.

Case management maps (CMMs) are a type of job aid: a sheet of paper with information that guides healthcare providers in treating patients. Each patient has his or her own condition-related CMM, which is maintained in the patient’s chart or on the wall near the patient’s hospital bed to inform providers of the treatment protocol, what treatment was provided when and by whom, what to do should a critical event occur, etc. This report describes a study that implemented two CMMs that were introduced about a year apart in a 500-bed hospital where such job aids had not previously been used.

There is no doubt that one of the most effective ways of improving quality of health care at district level, is by means of clinic supervision. To that end, the Clinic Supervisor’s Manual is being used to implement supervision throughout health districts in South Africa. This booklet is a simple tool which guides the effective use of the Clinic Supervisor’s Manual in addition to guiding the day to day activities involved in supervision towards successful and improved outcomes.

The checklist described in this document has been developed as a tool to assist those involved in a systematic review of the human resource development component of the NTP. This component is often referred to as “training.” In this document, the term training is used in a broader context than the more traditional interpretation of the term, where training refers to organization and implementation of training courses. Training in this document is often replaced by the term “HR development” to stress the need for a broader and more long-term approach within NTPs. [from introduction]

This user’s guide contains materials needed to design and implement the Quick Investigation of Quality (QIQ) in a given country. QIQ refers to the set of three related data collection instruments designed to monitor 25 indicators of quality of care in clinic-based family planning programs. This volume includes an overview of the QIQ (including objectives, short list of indicators, and methodological and ethical issues), guidelines for sampling and training of field personnel, instruments and guidelines for data collection and summary results from short list of indicators (tabular and graphic forms).

The handbook is a resource collection of information sheets and participatory activities for NGOs working on HIV/AIDS who want to work towards a greater involvement of people living with HIV (GIPA) in their work. It aims at sensitising NGOs, building individual skills and organisational capacities so that NGO management, staff and volunteers can discuss and plan together in a participatory way how to meaningfully involve people living with HIV in their organisation. [from introduction]