Latest Resources

Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employement and Life (MABEL) Longitudinal Survey: Protocol and Baseline Data for a Prospective Cohort Study of Australian Doctors' Workforce Participation

While there is considerable research on medical workforce supply trends, there is little research examining the determinants of labour supply decisions for the medical workforce. The MABEL study investigates workforce participation patterns and their determinants using a longitudinal survey of Australian doctors. It aims to generate evidence to support developing effective policy responses to workforce issues such as shortages and maldistribution. This paper describes the study protocol and baseline cohort, including an analysis of response rates and response bias. [from abstract]

Primary Health Care Supervision in Developing Countries

The objectives of this article were summarise opinion about what supervision of primary health care is by those advocating it; compare these features with reports describing supervision in practice; and to appraise the evidence of the effects of sector performance. [adapted from summary]

Strategy to Improve Skills in Pharmaceutical Supply Management in East Africa: the Regional Technical Resource Collaboration for Pharmaceutical Management

This article evaluates a training initiative that has been established to help address the problem of skills shortage in pharmaceutical management in East Africa. [adapted from abstract]

Challenges Facing the Tanzanian Health Workforce in the Era of HIV/AIDS

The need for documenting how the AIDS epidemic is affecting the health care personnel has long been recognized. In the specific case of Tanzania which already has a Health Sector HIV/AIDS Strategy it is imperative to have information on how the health system and the health personnel who are expected to spearhead the implementation of that strategy are being affected. This can guide preventive and remedial measures to ensure that the capacity of the system and its personnel for the effective implementation of the Strategy is not unduly compromised. [from author]

Wrong Schools or Wrong Students? The Potential Role of Medical Education in Regional Imbalances of the Health Workforce in the United Republic of Tanzania

This paper reviews available research evidence that links medical students’ characteristics with human resource imbalances and the contribution of medical schools in perpetuating an inequitable distribution of the health workforce. [from abstract]

Private Practitioners and Public Health: Weak Links in Tuberculosis Control

Information on health expenditure suggests that most poor countries have a large and growing private medical sector. Surveys indicate that the private sector is an important source of care, even for poor people and even where public services are widely available. Experts believe that private practitioners manage a large proportion of the unreported majority of tuberculosis cases. [adapted from author]

Validation of Community Health Workers' Assessment of Neonatal Illness in Rural Bangladesh

Improving neonatal health and survival requires cost-effective interventions at the community level, as well as linkages between the community and the health-care system within the continuum of care for the treatment of severe illness. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of CHWs in recognizing signs and symptoms of neonatal illness during routine household surveillance in rural Bangladesh. [from introduction]

Human Resource and Funding Constraints for Essential Surgery in District Hospitals in Africa: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Survey

While constrained health budgets and health worker shortages have been blamed for the low rates of surgery, there has been little empirical data on the providers of surgery and cost of surgical services in Africa. This study described the range of providers of surgical care and anesthesia and estimated the resources dedicated to surgery at district hospitals in three African countries. [from abstract]

Task Shifting Routine Inpatient Pediatric HIV Testing Improves Program Outcomes in Urban Malawi: A Retrospective Observational Study

This study evaluated two models of routine HIV testing of hospitalized children in a high HIV-prevalence resource-constrained African setting. Both models incorporated task shifting, or the allocation of tasks to the least-costly, capable health worker. [from abstract]

HRH Global Resource Center Change in Subject Terms

Based on user needs and search patterns, the GRC will be updating our subject terms to make it easier to find and organize information on high-need topics. Several of the current subject terms will no longer be used, so if you have bookmarks or RSS feeds to these terms, please be aware that you might need to update your links.

Malawi: Distribution of DMPA at the Community Level: Lessons Learned

In 2008, Malawi piloted the distribution of depo-medroxy progesterone acetate (DMPA), an injectable contraceptive, to the community by Health Surveillance Assistants. This report presents lessons learned during the initial implementation, from gaining stakeholder buy-in to curriculum development, and the initial three months after the training and implementation roll-out. [from abstract]

Health Worker Migration: Disease or Symptom

This article discusses the evidence for claiming out-migration of health workers impacts health and how to address the issue ethically.

Evaluation Study on the Relevance and Effectiveness of Training Activities in Northern Uganda

This study focused on a trained health workforce in Northern Uganda. The retention of specifically-trained staff 12-15 months after attending training was examined, as was the relevance and usefulness of the training as perceived by the health workers. [from abstract]

Report on the WHO/PEPFAR Planning Meeting on Scaling Up Nursing and Medical Education

The function of this meeting was to gather information on medical and nursing education, including learning from countries and institutions where innovative solutions are already being tested and implemented. The information, summarized in this meeting report, will inform the the development of evidence-based policy guidance that will serve to support countries in their efforts to scale up medical and nursing education. [adapted from author]

Improving Health Workforce Recruitment and Retention in Rural and Remote Regions of Nigeria

This article posits that out-migration of health workers is not a critical contributor to health workforce shortages in Nigeria’s rural and remote areas and that more important factors include: contraction of government health spending as a percentage of GDP despite deteriorating health conditions, public health management systems that operate by default rather than by design, spartan living conditions outside urban areas, inadequate training of appropriate cadres of health staff, limited facilities and medications for effective delivery of clinical services, and burnout of overworked and unde

Going the Last Mile: How Can We Achieve Health Information for All?

This presentation was a part of a 2009 Global Health Mini-University and covers acheiving health information for all; defining knowledge for health; information needs, capacity and delivery preferences of health professionals; and extending the reach and use of health information. [adapted from author]

Impact of the Economic Recession on Nurses and Nursing in Iceland

This article describes human resources in nursing and the role and status of nurses within the health care system. It also deals with government measures and the foreseeable impact on nursing and health care services. [adapted from introduction]

European Forum for Primary Care and the European Commission Consultation Process on the European Workforce for health: Some Emerging Messages

This editorial provides a summary of the results of a consultation on the urgent challenges the health workforce is facing. [adapted from author]

Public Stewardship of Private Providers in Mixed Health Systems

This report summarizes the findings from research examining the role of the private sector in health systems in developing countries and emphasizes the importance of effective stewardship by governments of their country’s health system, especially given the reality that the private (nonstate) part of the system is large and complex, with major challenges and significant opportunities. [adapted from author]

Incentive Payments to General Practitioners Aimed at Increasing Opportunistic Testing of Young Women for Chlamydia: a Pilot Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

Financial incentives have been used for many years internationally to improve quality of care in general practice. The aim of this pilot study was to determine if offering general practitioners a small incentive payment per test would increase chlamydia testing in women aged 16 to 24 years, attending general practice. [from abstract]

New Pardigm Old Thinking: the Case for Emergency Obstetric Care in the Prevention of Maternal Mortality in Nigeria

This study assessed the knowledge of maternity unit operatives at the primary and secondary levels of care about the concept of emergency obstetric care and investigated the contents of antenatal care counseling services they delivered to clients. It also described the operatives’ preferred strategies and practices for promoting safe motherhood and averting maternal mortality in south-west Nigeria. [from abstract]

Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Smear-Positive Tuberculosis Treatment by Health Extension Workers in Southern Ethiopia: A Community Randomized Trial

In this study, we aimed to determine the cost and cost-effectiveness of involving health extension workers in tuberculosis treatment in Southern Ethiopia. This paper presents an ancillary cost-effectiveness analysis of data from a randomized control trial. [adapted from introduction]

What Does It Take to Make Integrated Care Work?

Around the world, only a few health care providers deliver integrated care effectively. Their experiences offer useful lessons for organizations that want to pilot integrated-care programs. [from author]

Developing Counseling skills through Pre-Recorded Videos and Role Play: a Pre- and Post-Intervention Study in a Pakistani Medical School

Interactive methods like role play, recorded video scenarios and objective structured clinical exam are being regularly used to teach and assess communication skills of medical students in the western world. In developing countries however, they are still in the preliminary phases of execution in most institutes. Our study was conducted in a naive under resourced setup to assess the impact of such teaching methodologies on the counseling skills of medical students. [from abstract]

Engaging the Private Sector to Improve Access to Quality Care: Public Ends Private Means

This brief outlines the barriers to overcome to improve the functioning of the private health sector, the impact, the pros and cons of engaging the privat sector, myths of using provate providers and policy options. [adapted from author]