Evaluations & Reviews

Home- or Community-Based Programmes for Treating Malaria: Review

This review evaluated the effects of a home- or community-based program for treating malaria in a malaria endemic setting through interventions involving training community health workers or mothers. [adapted from author]

Health Care in Danger: Violent Incidents Affecting Health Care

This report analyses the main patterns of violence that were identified from information collected from 921 violent incidents affecting health-care during armed conflict and other emergencies in 22 countries involving the use or threat of violence against health-care personnel, the wounded and the sick, health-care facilities and medical vehicles. [adapted from summary]

Performance Assessment in Primary Health Care: A Systematic Literature Review

The aim of this research is to carry out a systematic literature review of the studies devoted to the performance assessment of primary health care providers. Focusing on the peculiarities of performance evaluation in the public sector, it analyses the selected empirical papers in terms of the efficacy of the developed measurement schemes. [adpated from author]

Commitments for Every Woman, Every Child: A Human Resources for Health Perspective

The findings from this HRH analysis complement the exercises conducted in 2011 and 2012, demonstrating the emphasis on HRH, but with additional specificity as a result of deconstructing the country commitments into their individual action statements to accelerate progress on Millenium Development Goals 4 and 5. [adapted from author]

Assessment of Provider Adherence to TB Evidence-Based Standards and Guidelines in Zambia

This study was undertaken to determine providers’ adherence with evidence based TB standards and guidelines in Zambia at national, provincial/district and facility-based levels. [adapted from summary]

Health Impacts of Pre-Service Education: An Integrative Review and Evidence-Based Conceptual Model

This integrative review of the literature was undertaken to examine what is presently known about the various factors that influence the quality of pre-service education (PSE) programs. The purpose of the model is to describe the logical links between inputs (e.g., activities, resources) that can strengthen health occupation or profession PSE systems, and the ultimate public health impact. [adapted from summary]

Effective In-Service Training Techniques, Frequency, Setting and Media: Evidence from an Integrative Review of the Literature

This integrative review of the literature provides an in-depth analysis of the effect that educational techniques, frequency, setting and mode of delivery have on health worker learning outcomes and subsequent practice behaviors. [adapted from introduction]

Effectiveness of a Brief Educational Workshop Intervention among Primary Care Providers at 6 Months: Uptake of Dental Emergency Supporting Resources

This descriptive study used a validated questionnaire survey instrument to measure the effectiveness of a short multimodal educational intervention in the management of dental emergencies, including education in supporting resources, through the uptake and perceived usefulness of supporting resources at 6 months following the intervention. [adapted from abstract]

Effect of Implementing Undergraduate Competency-Based Medical Education on Students' Knowledge Acquisition, Clinical Performance and Perceived Preparedness for Practice: a Comparative Study

This study compared knowledge acquisition, clinical performance and perceived preparedness for practice of students from a competency-based active learning curriculum and a prior active learning curriculum. [from abstract]

Effective or Just Practical? An Evaluation of an Online Postgraduate Module on Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)

The aim of this study was to formatively evaluate a 12-week, completely online module from a South African university for medical specialists in their first year of training; assessing both the mode of delivery as well as the perceived effectiveness and usefulness. [adapted from abstract]

Taxonomy for Community-Based Care Programs Focused on HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment, and Care in Resource-Poor Settings

This review sought to develop taxonomy of community-based care programs focused on HIV/ AIDS in resource-limited settings in an effort to understand their key characteristics, uncover any gaps in programming, and highlight the potential roles they play. [from abstract]

Integrating HIV Care into Nurse-Led Primary Health Care Services in South Africa: A Synthesis of Three Linked Qualitative Studies

This study documents different factors influencing models of integration within clinics of HIV care into nurse-led primary care services to increase access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in high HIV burden countries. [adapted from abstract]

Ten Principles of Good Interdisciplinary Team Work

This paper draws on a published systematic review of the literature combined with empirical data derived from interdisciplinary teams involved in the delivery of community rehabilitation and intermediate care services, to develop a set of competencies around effective interdisciplinary team practice. [from author]

Nurses' Workarounds in Acute Healthcare Settings: A Scoping Review

This paper assesses the peer reviewed empirical evidence available on the use, proliferation, conceptualisation, rationalisation and perceived impact of nurses’ use of workarounds in acute care settings. [from abstract]

Evaluating Primary Health Care Policies: A Step Towards Identifying Human Resource Issues in Commune Health Stations in Vietnam

This review documents the ways in which primary health care, specifically human resources in primary health care, has been evaluated in low- and middle income countries with a focus given to countries that have undergone health sector reforms similar to Vietnam. [adapted from author]

Systematic Review Evaluating the Impact of Task Shifting on Access to Antiretroviral Therapy in Sub-Saharan Africa

This review evaluates whether task shifting of ART initiation and management from physicians to nurses increases access to antiretroviral therapy, the primary purpose cited for the implementation of task shifting policies. [from introduction]

Pay-for-Performance Incentives in Low- and Middle-Income Country Health Programs

This chapter surveys experience with performance pay in developing country health programs focusing on four key conceptual issues: what to reward, who to reward, how to reward, and what unintended consequences might performance incentives create. [adapted from abstract]

Assessment of Human Resources at the Pharmaceutical Sector

The main objective of this assessment was to determine human resources availability in the pharmaceutical sector in Sudan. The assessment was done in six states and included the Ministry of Health and its agencies, pharmacy education providers, public health facilities, private retail pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and local pharmaceutical companies. [adapted from author]

Comparative Performance of Private and Public Healthcare Systems in Low- and Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review

This article reports on a systematic review of research studies investigating the performance of private and public sector delivery in low- and middle-income countries. [adpated from abstract]

Reducing Needle Stick Injuries in Healthcare Occupations: An Integrative Review of the Literature

Needlestick injuries frequently occur among healthcare workers, introducing high risk of bloodborne pathogen infection for surgeons, assistants, and nurses. This systematic review aims to explore the impact of both educational training and safeguard interventions to reduce needlestick injuries. [from abstract]

Training Health Care Professionals in Root Cause Analysis: A Cross-Sectional Study of Post-Training Experiences, Benefits and Attitudes

This cross-section study evaluates the effectiveness of training programs to build the local capacity and capability of health workers in root cause analysis (RCA), used to investigate patient safety incidents and facilitate organizational learning. [adapted from abstract]

Dealing with Difficult Design Decisions: The Experience of an RBF Pilot Program in Haut-Katanga District of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

The Haut-Katanga pilot program and impact evaluation described in this paper is intended to provide rigorous evidence, using a randomized intervention design, of the effects of a performance-based financing strategy in the difficult conditions of rural DRC by analyzing the effects of the strategy on production of health services (quantity and quality), management of the facility and behavior of health staff, and behavior of households.­ [from author]

Australia: The Practice Incentives Program (PIP)

The authors evaluate Autstralia’s Practice Incentives Program which aims to encourage continuing improvements in general practice through financial incentives to support quality care, and improve access and health outcomes for patients. [from introduction]

New Zealand: Primary Health Organization (PHO) Performance Program

This report outlines and evaluates a pay-for-performance program designed to strengthen the role of primary health organizations to focus on population health and health inequality programs, and to address problems of service access and lack of coordination between providers. [adapted from introduction]

Using Performance Incentives to Improve Health Outcomes

This study examines the effect of performance incentives for health care providers to provide more and higher quality care in Rwanda on child health outcomes. [from abstract]

What Is the Role of Informal Healthcare Providers in Developing Countries? A Systematic Review

The authors conducted a comprehensive literature review on the informal health care sector in developing countries to determine thebasic characteristics of performance, cost, quality, utilization, and size of this sector. [adpated from abstract]

Case Study: Scaling Up Education and Training of Human Resources for Health in Ethiopia: Moving Towards Achieving the MDGs

This case study share lessons learned and recommendations related Ethiopia’s scaling up the preservice education of health-care workers in order to solve the critical shortage of staff in health-care facilities, and ultimately to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. [adapted from summary]

Health Workforce Remuneration: Comparing Wage Levels, Ranking, and Dispersion of 16 Occupational Groups in 20 Countries

This article explores remuneration in human resources for health, comparing wage levels, ranking and dispersion of 16 occupational groups in 20 countries is to examine to what extent the wage rankings, standardized wage levels, and wage dispersion are similar between the groups and across the selected countries and what factors can be shown to be related to the differences that emerge. [adapted from abstract]

Provider Payment in Community-Based Health Insurance Schemes in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

The authors reviewed provider payment methods used in community-based insurance (CBI) in developing countries and their impact on CBI performance. [from abstract]

Service Delivery in Kenyan District Hospitals: What Can We Learn from Literature on Mid-Level Mangers?

This review examined literature on the roles of mid-level managers to understand how they might influence service delivery quality in Kenyan hospitals. [adapted from abstract]