HRH Overview

A technical meeting on strengthening health workforce information systems was held on 10–12 March 2010 in Montreux, Switzerland. The aim of this meeting was to initiate discussion on how to promote a coordinated, harmonized and standardized approach to strengthening country health workforce information and monitoring systems to support policy, planning and research. [from summary]

This report summarizes a a rapid mapping of HRH resources in Pacific Island countries to generate baseline data on the current HRH situation in the region, information on in-country and external education institutions involved in HRH development, and data on external partners providing HRH-related assistance. [adapted from summary]

The data presented here in 46 country fact sheets for all countries in the African Region was collected in a comprehensive HRH data collection exercise in 2005. The HRH country fact sheets presented here are intended to give a brief summary of the HRH situation in each country. [publisher’s description]

The HRH country profiles serve as a tool for systematically presenting the HRH situation, policies and management. They are expected to help to monitor trends, generate regional HRH overviews, provide comparable data between countries and identify points for focused action in countries. They will also serve for a comparison of countries’ responses to similar HRH challenges.

Note: Current profiles include Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria and Uganda.

This short course provides an overview of the primary issues facing human resources in the global health sector.

This article outlines the primary issues and underlying caused of the current health workforce crisis.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance says there is an acute shortage of health workers around the world which is affecting the quality of care, especially in developing countries and warns that without prompt action the shortage will worsen. This video reviews the issue. [adapted from author]

The critical shortage of qualified health professionals, especially in the developing world, leaves patients without access to care for even the most basic health issues. In this video, created by the Health Rights Advocacy Forum (HERAF) and PHR, health workers at Mbagathi District Hospital in Kenya talk about how they rise to the challenges they face every day. [from author]

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

This working paper describes a tool and model for extimating the health worker requirments for scaling up priority health interventions in limited resource areas of sub-Saharan Africa, rooted in the concept of functional job analysis and taking into consideration skill set and quality measures. [adapted from author]

Until recently researchers and policymakers paid little attention to the role of health workers in developing countries but a new generation of studies are providing a fuller understanding of these issues using more sophisticated data and research tools. This article presents ten examples of this new type of research. [from introduction]

This brief summary introduces some of the main issues of the health worker crisis including internal migration and brain drain, task shifting and infectious disease.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 presents an analysis of the relationship between the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives across countries and the intervention coverage. It demonstrates that health status and levels of coverage are positively associated with health worker density. The purpose of this paper, is to determine whether these relationships are robust to the inclusion of many more countries in the data set.

This background paper documents the analytical work conducted for the World Health Report 2006 to provide new evidence on the relationship between the density of human resources for health and the coverage of key health interventions, at subnational level in Brazil. The analysis highlights how socioeconomic conditions of the population moderates the ability of health workers to perform their tasks efficiently and how various policies have succeeded in increasing the coverage of antenatal care services. [from publisher]

This issue of Voices highlights the Capacity Project’s success in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce and its impact on health systems strengthening. [from publisher]

This presentation provides an overview of the health workforce in Africa, the causes of the workforce crisis and solutions, financing the health workforce and global attention to the issues. [from author]

This report outlines the work done by the Capacity Project to strengthen human resources to implement quality health programming in developing countries, focusing on: improving workforce planning and leadership; developing better education and training programs; and strengthening systems to support workforce performance. [adapted from author]

The purpose of this course is to introduce the basic principles and promising practices related to HRH. By the end of the course, participants should be able to: describe the global HRH situation and promising practices; and identify documents, organizations and other resources that address HRH issues. [from author]

This presentation addresses health workforce supply and distribution issues and stakeholders, as well as the consequences of inaction in resolving these issues.

This paper synthesises some of the published and grey literature on the process of scaling up the health workforce - also known as human resources for health (HRH) - with a particular focus on increasing the number of trained providers of health services. It concentrates on low- and middle-income countries, although some literature on richer countries is included. [from summary]

This agenda for global action is intended to guide the initial steps in a coordinated global, regional and national response to the worldwide shortage and mal-distribution of health workers with the goal of moving towards universal access to quality health care and improved health outcomes. It is meant to unite and intensify the political will and commitments necessary for significant and effective actions to resolve this crisis, and to align efforts of all stakeholders at all levels around solutions. [from introduction]

This paper reflects on human resources for health research. It provides recommendations regarding this increasingly important component of the overall strategy to improve the quality, quantity and stability of successful sustainable health system improvement in developing countries. [adapted from abstract]

The health worker shortage in sub-Saharan Africa derives from many causes, yet the dynamics of entry into and exit from the health workforce in many of these countries remain poorly understood. This limits the capacity of national governments and their international development partners to design and implement appropriate intervention programmes. This paper provides some of this information through the first systematic estimates of health worker inflow and outflow in selected sub-Saharan African countries. [adapted from introduction]

This presentation outlines the main issues surrounding the health workforce in Romania and describes the effects of primary health care reforms.

Review of different documents on human resource for health in Ethiopia was undertaken. Generally there is shortage in number of different groups of professionals, maldistribution of professionals between regions, urban and rural setting, and governmental and non governmental/private organizations. A number of measures are being taken to alleviate these problems. The implications of these for human resource development by 2015 are explored briefly. [adapted from abstract]

This presentation by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region Office from the 2008 Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resource for Health Conference discusses the regional perspective on matters affecting HRH including health worker distribution and vulnerable populations. [adapted from presentation]

This World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia presentation from the 2008 Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resource for Health Conference discusses regional HRH-related problems and their causes, as well as potential health workforce planning options. [adapted from presentation]

This presentation from the 2008 Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resource for Health Conference discusses aspects of the global HRH situation including the global maldistribution of health workers and scaling up health workforce production. [adapted from presentation]

This report reviews the current HRH status in eighteen targeted countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It focuses primarily on health education and training; the distribution and retention of health workers; and community health workers. [adapted from abstract]

The 2008 World Health Report revisits the vision of primary health care as a set of values and principles for guiding the development of health systems. It represents an opportunity to identify major avenues for health systems reform in the areas of universal coverage, service delivery, public policy and leadership. [adapted from publisher]